An Accidental Crossing
by Mirani
Summary: Because most blessings turn into curses. Going to the Narutoverse may start out cool and fun, but ninja lives are not always full of unicorns and rainbows. Especially when what should be a cliché life is turned upside down. -Revised.-
1. Falling In

A/N: **This is important!** You may be looking at this and thinking, 'Hey, this has changed!' You are right! I have begun the extremely long process of revising my story (while posted two-ish years ago, this story is about four years old). While I will still be updating (and revising those too before they go up), I will be changing the chapters as I fix them. The plot hasn't changed at all, it's just the style. Some dialogue may be different, and the timing is a little different now too. The character's appearance and abilities have changed slightly, to make them less of Mary-Sues. Go me!

**REVISED CHAPTER** - If it does not have this in the author's note, then it is OLD. I will post something different in the author's note when you have reached the chapters that have already been revised but never posted.

Anyways, I'd like to thank you readers for taking your time and reading this. And being patient. This story is typically updated biweekly on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Drop a review if you can, they boost my ego. XD

Last thought, I mean it: This story, while having some serious moments, has some humor in it. It was originally a crack fic making fun of Mary-Sues, but things didn't quite work out that way (not saying it lost all its humor, but don't expect continous laughs). I encourage you to still give it a chance - what's the worst thing that could happen? lol.

**Disclaimer/Claimer:** I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own the characters Mirani and Ilki, as they have previously been copyrighted to me by a friend who borrowed them for her privately published book. So yay, I own something!

* * *

"Ich bin tot! Ich bin tot! Ich bi-"

"Becca, I'm pretty sure she's not paying attention."

Glancing up from her work, the blond authoress scowled at her two friends. A half-eaten lunch was next to her notebook, which she was scribbling furiously in. Across the table sat her best friend, and her German class buddy, who had been trying to get her attention for the past ten minutes. But whenever the plot bunnies visited her, she tended to ignore her surroundings.

"She lives!" Her friend, Sam, accompanied her words with a mock-gasp of horror.

The authoress chucked a spoonful of mashed potatoes at her, which got her a scowl from one of the lunch monitors. She smiled sheepishly at him, her old English teacher, who shook his head in a don't-do-it-again fashion before moving on.

"So what's it about this time?" Sam asked, trying to take the notebook from her.

"Well, it's a Naruto fan fic," she answered, grabbing her notebook and placing it on her lap, away from her friend. "You and I fall into the world, are super leet, then die."

"Why do you always kill us off, Karolina?" Her friend banged her head on the table in an over-dramatic fashion. "It's like you have a death wish for us."

"I do," Karolina deadpanned, before putting her notebook back in her backpack. "See, I'm like that chick in that movie, Stranger than Fiction or whatever. Make the lives awesome, then kill them off."

"My sadistic friends..." Sam rolled her eyes, then gave Becca a one-armed hugged. " 'Cept you, Becca. You're like, the nicest person I know." She turned back to her best friend and cocked her head to the side. "So what happens in this one?"

"Well, for starters, I gave you an unrealistic Japanese name." She sighed. "But you're based off of one of my super ancient characters, so we'll just play along with the 'unique' name of yours."

"Think about it, though. I mean, they put someone with the name 'Killer Bee' in the story. The letter 'L' must not be that bad, then."

"Touché."

"I wanna be in it!" Becca said, looking up from her drawing she had just started.

"Maybe in another one," the authoress replied, glancing at her backpack. "I've already got a pretty solid outline for the story right now."

"So wait, we fall into the world...are we aware of what happened?" Sam asked, snagging a cookie out of Karolina's lunch box.

"We're not supposed to be." The blond scowled at her friend. "And that was my last cookie." When Sam merely waved it off and then gestured for her to continue, she sighed. "In the story, we're supposed to be from the Naruto world. Somehow we've fallen into what I like to call a parallel Earth, where Naruto hasn't been created. So we're not supposed to have knowledge of anything. We fall back in, and try to figure out what happened."

"...insert the crickets. That made no sense."

"You're just stupid, dear. It'll make sense when I start writing it out and letting you read it."

They spent the rest of their lunch period idly chatting away, the subjects ranging from homework to the latest episode of Doctor Who. Even the rest of the day went by relatively smoothly, all things considered – it was high school, after all.

Later that night, around three o'clock in the morning, the authoress was still up and furiously typing away on her laptop. She was not an insomniac, but her active mind never let her rest when a story was in it. And when she was awake, she kept her best friend awake too with her constant texts. Her story, at least the outline, had been typed up earlier in the evening. A few tweaks here, a few tweaks there, and she had gotten it down. She was still working on the first few chapters though, and she was quite thankful for her fast typing skills.

Sam had finally gotten around to just calling her, since she was getting annoyed with the constant buzzing sound her phone made when she received a new text. While holding a phone would have severely hindered Karolina's typing abilities, speakerphone did not. Her phone sat next to her laptop, and her cat next to it, batting away at the contraption that could make noise.

"Can I go to bed yet?" Sam asked for the twenty-third time.

"Nope." The authoress shook her head, even though her friend could not see her. "I want to get these chapters done."

"The day you actually finish a story, the universe will collapse."

"No dear, that only happens when you meet your clone. Then a rift will appear and suck us all into oblivion while destroying the world."

"...you stole that from our dear friend Osika."

"Yes, yes I did." Karolina bit her lip as she reread her last paragraph. "Gah, I can't get this to sound right."

"Use that thesaurus you love so much."

"Nah." She hit several keys, and her computer made several beeping noises as warning boxes pulled up.

"...tell me that sound was not you deleting those chapters."

"Okay, that sound was not me deleting those chapters."

"Phew."

"I lied."

The authoress had to then endure several minutes of Sam's rather explicit vocabulary, all the while studying her outline once again. It sounded all right to her, but it was not that perfection she loved – and would stop at nothing to get.

"My Karolina-is-gonna-keep-me-up-all-night senses are tingling," Sam deadpanned, and the authoress could practically feel her glaring at her phone.

She did not answer, instead glancing at her suddenly quiet cat. The cat, however, was missing; as was, she realized with a start, half of her room. Indeed, part of her room was now just a black void. 'My room is dark,' she thought, 'but not this dark.'

"Hey...dearie...did you meet your clone?" she asked as she studied the growing blackness.

"No, why?"

"Because there's a black void of doom in my room."

Sam sighed. "You're hallucinating. You must need sleep."

"If you say so..."

The void began to tug at her, but the sensation seemed off to her. It was as if the tugging was in her mind, in the dark – and probably dusty – corners she never went to. While the tugging seemed odd to her, the void was literally tugging at the laptop in front of her. Within moments, it had tugged it enough so that it disappeared in the void.

"Houston...we may have a problem..."

There was a blinding flash of light, and then she fell unconscious.

* * *

A/N: Like? Hate? Send me a review either way. Please! :)

"Ich bin tot" means "I am dead" in German. My friend Becca has literally run around screaming that before, and it is quite hilarious. I thought I'd share it with the rest of you. XD


	2. It Should not be Possible

**REVISED CHAPTER.**

A/N: Another revised one! Yay! This chapter is more organized than it was, and not as...random. Go me! On to the next chapter revision! *speeds away* ADVENTURE!

**Disclaimer/Claimer:** I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own the characters Mirani and Ilki, as they have previously been copyrighted to me by a friend who borrowed them for her privately published book. So yay, I own something!

Glossary at end of the chappie.

If the dialogue is **BOLDED**, then it is in English. If the dialogue is NORMAL, it is in Japanese.

**Important!** There is an A/N at the end of this chapter that I suggest you actually pay attention to. It involves the cliché-ness you may experience while reading this chapter.

* * *

A gentle breeze rustled the leaves of the forest. Its caressing touch brushed across the faces of two girls laying in the middle of one of the clearings. The darker-skinned one twitched her nose, then rolled over – and ran into a pale-skinned girl who was knocked out. Being a light sleeper, the darker one immediately opened her eyes and sprung away from whoever she had run into. 'What a strange looking person...' she thought as she studied the sleeping figure.

The figure was small, still young. She looked, at the oldest, maybe thirteen. Her hair was long and midnight colored, changing from black to a dark blue depending on the angle. It was pushed off her face by a silvery headband. She had color-coordinated her clothes, a sign of a perfectionist that the darker-skinned girl had seen before in her best friend. The clothes were simple; some sort of silvery layering piece under a dark blue half-jacket, with a matching dark blue skirt and black shoes similar to sneakers, but without the laces. Frowning, the girl realized this person was ringing bells in her head... 'But why? I've never seen her before, I think...'

Moving closer to the unconscious girl, she poked her shoulder once. With no response, the girl started to continuously poke her until her eyes suddenly flew open. She grabbed the offending finger and glared at it, before looking at its owner. Her silver eyes flashed in surprise for a moment, before she gaped.

"**Dear god...**" She face-palmed. "**You have got to be kidding me... Sam...why the heck are you cosplaying right now, **_**in my house**_**?**"

"**Um...I'm not cosplaying...you are.**" Sam shrugged. "**And we're not in your house.** **Who are you, anyways?**"

"**D'heck?**" The girl cocked her head to the side. "**I'm Karolina, genius.**"

"**You...You're lying. You don't look like her...**"

"**You don't look like Sam, especially with your hair that straight and non-poofy, but...it's like I just **_**know**_** you're Sam.**"

Instantly, her hands flew to her hair. It was soft, smooth, and _long_ – a far cry from the typical poof-ball it was. "**Describe how I look.**"

Karolina wrinkled her nose. "**To be honest...you look like my ancient character that I modeled you after in that story I was working on. Long, black hair with cat-green eyes. Dark green t-shirt over a long-sleeved, black fishnet...shirt thingy. Black shorts, black shoes. Why?**" Realization dawned on her face. "**Sam...what do I look like?**"

When she told her, she turned even paler. "**What's wrong?**"

"**Sam...I think we just fell into my story.**"

"**You've gotta be effing kidding me.**"

The authoress started pacing back and forth, mumbling to herself as she walked. "**This shouldn't be possible. But here we are, in a unfamiliar forest, dressed up as my characters.**"

Sam shrugged. Karolina continued pacing, muttering to herself as the other looked about curiously.

Karolina eventually shook her head, as if to clear her thoughts. "**We must be dreaming. There's no way we can actually be here, dressed as my characters...** **Oh, dear lord, Sam...we're twelve again!**"

"**Say **_**what**_**?**" She glanced down at herself, then back at Karolina, and remembered what she had thought earlier. "**I don't wanna go through the teenager years again! We were just about to graduate...become adults...and we're twelve **_**again**_**?**"

"**We have to get home.**" Karolina twitched slightly, a chill running up her spine. "**We just have to figure out how.**"

Tapping her chin, Sam said, "**You know...until we figure it out, whether or not this is a dream, we could go exploring...**"

"**You have a horrible sense of direction, though,**" her friend replied absentmindedly. "**Not that it matters if we're dreaming.**"

She shrugged, closing her eyes and spinning around in a circle a few times. When she finally stopped, she pointed in that direction and began walking in it, her friend following her slowly. With her in deep thought, Sam had nothing better to do than talk to herself until something interrupted them. That something came in the form of giant gates with kanji on them that, when Sam did a double-take, morphed into English words.

"**D-Did you see that?**" she asked, nudging her friend from her thoughts.

The same thing happened to Karolina, and her eyes narrowed. "**That doesn't bode well.**"

Guards watched them warily as they approached, and one called out to them, "Halt! State your name, village, and your business with Konoha."

Sam stopped, studying them with her head tilted to the side. Behind her, her friend had face-palmed and was muttering something about the situation getting worse.

"**What did they say?**" she asked her friend, hoping to find answers in the rapidly paling girl.

"**Th-They're speaking in Japanese,**" she answered, wringing her hands. "**This could get really bad, really quickly. We can't understand them, and they can't understand us.**"

"**So what do we do?**" Sam studied the guards, who were watching them suspiciously.

"**There's only two things girls are good at doing,**" she said. "**Crying, and fainting. And I say fainting right about now.**"

"**And how do you suppose we do that?**"

"**Let the impact of us falling into the Naruto world hit you.**"

–

Waking up to a room colored in all white made Karolina think she had finally made it to the insane asylum. 'I always knew it would end up like this...' she thought as she blinked several times. Then the impact of what she had dreamed hit her in full force, and she sat up instantly. It was then that the 'dream' turned into a reality as she recognized the room she was in to be a hospital – and not just any hospital. She would recognize the Konoha hospital any day, considering the fact that almost every arc had a hospital episode in it somewhere.

"**Well sh-**" She was cut off as the machines she was hooked up to started to beep incessantly. Glaring at it, she half-shouted, "**Shut up! I don't need another headache!**"

The door to her room opened, and she turned her glare from the machine to the nurse that came running in. She took one look at the machines, then a rather pissed off authoress glaring at the machines, and turned back to the door. Outside, Karolina could see guards – ANBU, by the looks of their masks – standing on either side of her door.

"She's awake!" the nurse called, and one of the guards disappeared.

Looking at the nurse confusedly, she then remembered her lack of knowledge in the Japanese language field. A poof of smoke – how none of these people suffered from lung cancer with all that smoke around was beyond her – appeared in front of her room. Out of the smoke stepped the ANBU guard that had disappeared along with Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage. 'Double shiz,' she thought as she blinked.

"Hello there," he said, stopping a safe distance away. After all, they did not know her intentions.

She recognized he said some sort of greeting – watching the anime had given her the knowledge of a few phrases. So she waved a hello and smiled, all irritation at the beeping machine gone. 'If this is a dream, Sam's right. Mind as well enjoy it.' The dream thought suddenly froze in her head. 'Wait..I was able to faint...then I still woke up here...oh no.'

"Do you have a name?" The Hokage's voice cut into her thoughts, even if she did not understand what he said.

"**I...have no idea what you said...but...**" She shrugged helplessly. "**Let's play charades?**"

He frowned as the foreign words flew out of her mouth. "I do not understand you."

She shrugged again, then pointed to herself. Figuring she mind as well start the charades, she made sure to invert her name before saying, "**Tahigoto Mirani**."

"Where are you from?" he asked, trying again. At her blank stare, he walked over to the window and pointed outside. "Konohagakure."

Frowning, Karolina considered her options. She had stupidly, without thinking, told him her character's name. If they found out she had just lied about her identity – possibly impersonating someone who should not be real but could, at this rate, actually exist in the Naruto world – she could be in for some serious interrogations. At the Hokage's waiting expression, she threw caution out the window. 'What's the worse that could happen?'

"Getsumeigakure," she said, not with the proper pronunciation, but she had memorized how to say most of the villages – including the one her character was supposedly from.

He looked at her quizzically. "Strange, that you seemingly can't understand me, but you can answer my questions."

For the briefest moment, she considered banging her head and passing out again. She was getting tired of listening to gibberish. Suddenly, though, the Hokage formed a seal and touched her forehead. She jumped as a shock went through her head; she saw spots for a few seconds.

"I don't know if it'll work, but it's a technique the Interrogation Unit devised to force people to talk," the Hokage was saying as she shook her head to clear her vision. "With any luck, it'll allow you to speak in a coherent language."

"That HURT, Hokage-sama," she muttered as she rubbed her forehead – then she froze. "Wait...I understood you...and..." Her eyes widened.

"That's much better." The Hokage smiled at her. "What were you speaking before?"

"English." She frowned, trying to wrap her mind around the strange sounds she was making that she knew was the language of Japanese. "This is strange."

"You said you were for Getsumeigakure," the Hokage said, looking at her strangely. "That village was destroyed four years ago..."

"I know." Karolina sighed, struggling with her memory. Her character's history was complicated, and she did not know how much she should say. "By Orochimaru. That...that's a story in it's own right there." Glancing up, she studied the Hokage's expression. "I...don't really like to talk about that."

"Tell me how you came to be here, then."

"Me and my friend...Samiu Ilki -" She froze. "Is she okay? She was with me..."

"She's fine, in another room resting. Continue please."

"Well, we met four years ago, after my village and family was destroyed. I'm part of the...Tahigoto clan, the head clan in the village. I don't know if anyone survived...but...I managed to escape. When I was in the woods, I met Ilki. We...we didn't know what to do. She was all alone, too, but wouldn't talk about what happened. We stayed together, running from town to town and avoiding trouble as much as we can. One day..."

She stopped suddenly, realizing what she was saying. 'I'm...I'm reciting what happened in the story I was working on,' she thought, her eyes widening. 'Oh no, nononono. We can't...it isn't possible to live that story...' Closing her eyes, she back-peddled as fast as she could. 'This...this is too similar to my story. I mean, we fell in, passed out, were taken in by Konoha...maybe not with the same dialogue, but...'

"One day...?" the Hokage prompted, taking her silence to be hesitation to talk about whatever happened.

"When we were sleeping...something happened. We...we woke up in a completely different place. Everything was different, and we...we had families again. We were still friends...but we began to think the life we lived was a dream. Where we were...there wasn't chakra, or hidden villages, or ninja." The Hokage looked as if he would interrupt her to say such things were impossible, but he did not. "Then...something happened...I'm not sure what, but we were knocked unconscious. And we woke up in the forest. We were confused...we didn't know what was going on. We just walked aimlessly, and we ended up here."

"Interesting." The Hokage seemed to mull over this. "Your companion, what was her name again?"

"Samiu Ilki."

He looked at her oddly. "The Samiu clan were of Aneigakure. Also destroyed."

She knew that, of course, but she was not supposed to. If this was following her story, she should know nothing about this world. Her memories were supposed to flood her mind when they returned, as were Sam's memories, and they would have known what happened to them. They just were not supposed to know anything else about the shinobi world.

"I...did not know," she said, looking down at her feet. "But it explains a lot."

Taking her shyness as sadness, he moved forward and placed a hand on her shoulder in a grandfatherly way. "You must be very confused about things. As long as you two are not a threat to Konoha, you may stay here until things are sorted out. We will have to contact your home countries and see what they say."

"Understood." She tentatively stood up, unsure of how steady she would be. "May I see my friend?"

The Hokage nodded and led her out of the room, with the ANBU following them. Sam's room was just down the hall, and when they entered, she was just waking up. Karolina ran over to her and glomped her, glad she was okay. Then she whispered in her ear.

"You are Samiu Ilki now."

While Sam did not understand Japanese yet, she heard the name. And she nodded. Karolina let her go as the Hokage performed the same jutsu on her friend, and looked out the window at what should have been a fictional town. 'This is going to be interesting.'

* * *

**A/N:** Yes, I know it's overly cliché for them to fall in, unhurt, and relatively trusted. So let's clear a few things up: honestly, at this point, Konoha has not been invaded in a while. Therefore, they really have no reason to distrust two lost kids, besides placing them under guard and keeping an eye on them. Oki-day? Oki-day. Secondly, the we-fall-in-but-not-hurt thing. There are reasons for this that will be explained later (like do we have chakra? Do we even have a normal chakra system? Why did we not get hurt?) Please be patient.

**Glossary:**

Tsuki no Me means "Eye of the Moon". Thanks Sapphire-sama Dreamer for the correction!

Getsumei means "moonlight", so Getsumeigakure no Sato should roughly mean "Village Hidden in the Moonlight".

Anei means "gloom", so Aneigakure no Sato should roughly mean "Village Hidden in Gloom".

_Review please! :)_


	3. Of Ramen and Foxes

**REVISED CHAPTER.**

A/N: Less random than before, and it makes more sense. I think it flows better, too. Hope you enjoy!

**Disclaimer/Claimer:** I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own the characters Mirani and Ilki, as they have previously been copyrighted to me by a friend who borrowed them for her privately published book. So yay, I own something!

Glossary at end of the chappie.

* * *

With luck that she had never had before, Sam was able to tell a story so similar to her friend's that the Hokage believed both of them to be harmless, young girls. It was as if memories she should not have had suddenly found roots in her mind, growing clearer as she went along. The Hokage had left the two of them in her room after she had finished telling her story, something she was thankful for. She had several questions for her friend.

"So, we're impersonating people now?" she asked in a quiet voice, knowing there were probably still ANBU guards outside their room.

"I'm...not sure." Karolina leaned against the window, her eyes glued on the village outside. "I've been doing a lot of thinking, and..."

"And...?"

"I think we're in the story I was working on in lunch yesterday. And that's made us into my characters." She glanced at the door, as if waiting for the ANBU guards to come rushing in and demanding to know what was going on.

"The one where we're supposed to _die_?" Sam hissed, then, in a lower tone, asked, "How do you figure _that_?"

"The outline I was working on." She started pacing, now ignoring the window. "The only difference is that we're aware of what's going on, otherwise, everything has been following it. Relatively. Besides, we're dead-ringers for my characters."

"This...this is _not good._" Sam drummed her fingers on the bed she was sitting on. "There's gotta be some way to change that."

"I don't know." She shrugged helplessly. "I barely know what to do now."

The two were interrupted by the ANBU, but they did not charge in demanding answers like the girls thought they would. Instead, they told the two that they were to be lead to the Hokage's office. In a daze, the girls walked through the rather large village. The anime had never really given them a clear view of the village until it was destroyed, and it was strange to see just how large it was. People milled about with their everyday activities, normal people. Occasionally they would see a ninja go jumping across the rooftops, but in general they were surprised by the large amount of civilians in the village.

Eventually, a large building loomed in front of them. Behind it was the large, Naruto world version of Mount Rushmore. It seemed a little intimidating, as if the spirits of (and the current) Hokage were watching the progress of the village. 'Strange,' Sam wondered as she looked at them. 'I wonder if they know who _really_ just fell out of the sky.'

They were led up the the winding ramp to the Hokage's office, where they found the old man puffing on a pipe and gazing into an all-knowing orb. For a moment, she wondered if he was watching Naruto as he tended to do, but her attention was brought back to the present when Karolina elbowed her. She tended to be very transparent when she was not paying attention.

"I have secured an apartment for the two of you to share," he said, looking up from his orb. "And I have sent missives out to the Oni no Kuni and Tsuki no Kuni. Mirani, I'm not sure if you know, but another village has appeared there ever since Getsumei was destroyed, Getsugakure. We hope to find remnants of your old village there."

"Arigatō." Karolina accompanied her thanks with a nod, and shot a side-glance at her friend.

Sam knew that if her best friend was wrong, they would be in big trouble. Once the villages heard about them, they would know for sure how far Karolina's story had taken root.

"There is one other thing." He paused, considering his next words. "You two both have a significant amount of chakra."

"Hokage-sama," one of the ANBU guards said, his rank forgotten as he followed the Hokage's train of thought. "You can't give away our training secrets to other villages' children..."

"Remember your place." When the ANBU snapped back to attention and said nothing more, the Hokage continued. "While you, Mirani, have a replacement village, it is not as strong yet that it would be able to handle training someone with the amount of chakra you have. And you, Ilki, don't have a replacement village to go to. In the missives, I offered the daimyō of both countries the opportunity to have you two train here. It is a way for you to be properly trained, and a chance for Konoha to gain two more allies."

Sam refrained the urge to gape in surprise as she looked at her friend. Her friend was frozen, but she could tell she was mulling this over. This could be a pivotal event, perhaps something in her outline that she was trying to remember.

"I...accept," she finally said, looking at Sam.

"As do I." Sam nodded, and inside cheered. 'I'm going to be a kunoichi!'

"I will have the ANBU escort you to your apartments." The Hokage handed a slip of paper to the guard who had spoken out earlier. "But, for precautionary reasons, I will have you two watched. You seem sincere, but it's standard protocal."

"Not a problem." Karolina shrugged, then bowed. "Again, arigatō, Hokage-sama."

–

"I think for our safety, we should refer to ourselves by our 'real' names. Not our 'other' names."

The vagueness of the statement was enough that the newly renamed Mirani thought her friend would get it, but the ANBU would not. She knew the ANBU would have been briefed, and they would have heard her tell the Hokage that she and Ilki had been in another "place" that was different from their world. For all they knew, they would think the two had just been called differently in the other place and were simply reverting to their true names. If they did not understand it, any reports concerning it that the Hokage would receive would not cause worry. The Hokage, she was sure, would understand.

"This apartment is small," Ilki said after nodding.

"Better than nothing." She looked out the window. "And, I might be wrong, but I think we're near Naruto's apartment."

A smile spread across her friend's face. "That means Ichiraku is nearby!"

"Hokage-sama didn't give us a lot of money. We're not going to spend it all on ramen."

"...one bowl for each of us, just once?"

She sighed at her friend's pathetic expression and finally nodded. "And that's it."

With a loud whoop, Ilki ran out of the apartment. She followed at a slower pace, knowing her friend would not make it far. Ilki had a terrible sense of direction. In fact, she had barely reached the street when she found her darker-skinned friend looking left and right repeatedly.

"This way," Mirani said, pointing to the left.

They reached the stand rather quickly, and to their delight – or rather Ilki's, considering Mirani had retreated inside her mind and was thinking – they found Umino Iruka and Uzumaki Naruto eating ramen. The stand's owner, Teuchi, and his daughter, Ayame, were watching in amusement as the orange shinobi slurped bowl after bowl.

She was surprised she could remember the names of the stand's owners, but the thought flew out the window when she smelled the ramen. 'Okay...Ilki gets props for wanting to go here,' she thought as she stared up at the menu. The kanji once again morphed into English, but she had a feeling that if she tried to speak the language, it would translate itself Japanese.

"I'll take the miso ramen!" Ilki said as she slid onto one of the stools, surprising the two shinobi sitting there.

"What she said." Mirani sat down too, but with less energy than her friend.

It was obvious that Teuchi and Ayame were surprised that they had other customers at the time. She figured it was because people tended to avoid places when Naruto was at them – but Ilki would never act like that and Mirani respected the Jinchūriki.

"Hi there!" Ilki waved at Naruto and Iruka as she waited for her ramen. "I'm Ilki, and gloomy over here is Mirani."

Both wore equally shocked faces, and Mirani figured it was because Naruto was not used to people being nice to him and Iruka, too, was used to no one liking the troublemaker.

"I'm Naruto!" the whiskered-boy said after a moment, his energy rebounding at the prospect of making a friend. "And this is Iruka-sensei."

"We just moved here." Ilki glanced at the bowl Teuchi had just set in front of her. "And we heard that this place had great ramen..."

The ramen disappeared rather quickly, while the authoress ate hers with less gusto. She was more interested in watching her friend interact with fictional characters that were now in front of them, in flesh and blood. Ilki spent most of her time talking to Naruto about ramen and its "awesomeness".

"Are you two going to be coming to the Academy?" Iruka asked at some point, when there was a lull in the ramen discussion.

At Mirani's nod, the hyperactive soon-to-be ninja jumped at the opportunity. "Iruka-sensei, can you get them in our class?"

"I'm not sure," the academy teacher said, looking down at his student. "We have a full class."

"But...I don't know anyone else," Ilki said with wide eyes. "I would love to be in a class with my new friend."

At the word friend, Naruto's eyes widened, and he began to bug Iruka. The authoress sighed, setting money down on the counter before dragging Ilki away from the stand.

"It was nice meeting you guys," she said as she dragged the new ramen-addict away. "Hopefully we'll see you at the academy!"

–

"But I want more ramen!"

"Not now, Ilki." Mirani crossed her arms and glared at her friend as they sat on a bench _far away_ from the ramen stand. "We have a problem."

"A problem?" Frowning, she continued, "What kind of problem?"

"We're going to the Academy...and we don't know anything: no jutsu, neither of us have good aim, we don't know how to control chakra..." She sighed. "We don't even have weapons. Whenever we go to the Academy, we're going to be in a lot of trouble."

* * *

**Glossary:**

Oni no Kuni, "Land of Demons". Also called "Land of Ogres", and was featured in the fourth Naruto movie. It's been embellished from being a small country to a larger country with a hidden village.

Tsuki no Kuni, "Land of the Moon". It was in one of the movies pre-Shippuuden.

Getsugakure no Sato means "Village Hidden under the Moon".

_Review please! :)_


	4. Ninjas In Training

**REVISED CHAPTER.**

A/N: I actually enjoyed rewriting this one and knocking us down a few notches. There have been some significant changes in how Mirani and Ilki function to make them less Mary-Sue-ish. I hope you enjoy!

**Disclaimer/Claimer:** I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own the characters Mirani and Ilki, as they have previously been copyrighted to me by a friend who borrowed them for her privately published book. So yay, I own something!

Glossary at end of the chappie.

* * *

There were multiple training grounds in Konoha, but only one looked like a giant porcupine. After some weapon shopping, Ilki had dragged her friend to one of the many training grounds. They had rented one for the rest of the day, which, all things considered, was not a very long time. After their ramen escapade and the bench episode, they had spent a good hour debating on weapons before they had finally reached the grounds. The sun was sinking low in the sky, but she had insisted on practicing her aim.

Mirani had barely escaped getting cut up as kunai and shuriken went everywhere, _except_ the unharmed dummy in the middle of the training ground. Glaring at her friend, she came stomping up to her and snatched the remaining weapons from her hand, throwing them a safe distance away without harming anyone.

"Are you _crazy_?" she snapped.

"It all looked so easy on TV..." Ilki frowned, studying the mass destruction she had created.

"Do you _remember_ the bunshin you tried to create earlier? And how _bad_ it came out?"

"But that involved chakra...I figured weapons wouldn't be so bad..." She looked down sheepishly. "I wish my horrible aim hadn't carried over with me."

Her friend snorted in a very unladylike way. "Please. I couldn't hit the broadside of a barn. Now help me clean these up."

It took them the better half of an hour to collect the weapons strewn about, and even then they were missing some. As it got later, though, they lost interest in hunting through the woods for weapons that blended in with the shadows.

"So what should we do?" Ilki asked as she flopped down onto the ground.

"Lets focus on finding out what chakra feels like. Then we'll worry about molding it."

Sighing, she formed a hand sign and closed her eyes. Focusing deep down, she tried to find whatever large mass of chakra the Hokage had sensed. After a few minutes, she felt a tingling, warm sensation, as if she had just come out of the cold to a campfire. Whatever it was, it tickled pleasantly the more she focused on it.

"Ilki...you're surrounded by this growing..._darkness_." Her friend's voice cut her concentration, and the sensation went away.

"If that's chakra, I like it," she said with a shrug as she opened her eyes. Then, rather bluntly, she continued with, "You're glowing."

Looking down at her hand, Mirani frowned. "Chakra is weird."

"Do you remember any jutsu for us?" She was curious, she wanted to be able to do something if she could not throw anything.

"Kind of. Most only involved simple hand signs 'cause I didn't wanna make anything complicated, but I couldn't tell you how much chakra you would need to put in it."

"Nothing like trial and error." She stood and cracked her knuckles. "Lay 'em on me."

Mirani crossed her arms. "Bad idea. Too much chakra and the jutsu will explode, too little and nothing will happen."

"I want to try one!"

"Are you sure you're not secretly twelve?" She ducked a punch. "What? You have the attitude of one sometimes."

"You gonna teach me or not?" Ilki scowled. "Just one or two."

"Fine, we'll see how this works." She thought for a moment. "I think, tomorrow, we should buy some scrolls or something. I would like to write all the jutsu out so we don't forget, and we can work on them."

"Great idea, but less talky, more teachy now."

"I'm going to teach you what should be your signature move." Mirani went through the hand signs. "It's called Kage Ridatsu."

Pulling on that tingling sensation she had found, she mirrored the seals. "Kage Ridatsu!"

At first, she felt nothing. Then, glancing down, she found that her shadow had moved away from her, partially. One foot was free, and the shadow seemed to be struggling to get away. It hissed at her, and she released the jutsu.

"The more chakra you put into it, the farther it can go," her friend explained, tapping her chin in thought. "It's uses are simple: attack the enemy's shadow, and whatever damage it does to the shadow will be transferred to the actual person. Unfortunately, it works backwards, too. If someone hurts your shadow, it'll hurt you."

"What are you going to learn?" she asked, before performing the jutsu again. "Kage Ridatsu!"

"Hoshiboshiton: Taiyoukei Hakkei." She formed her own seals. "This being parallel to the other world we...traveled to, I would say there would still be nine planets, plus the sun. And that means I'm considering the dwarf planet a regular planet. Each planet is unique, and I can unleash it in the form of a quick attack. But it's incredibly draining to do all of them."

"So let me get this straight." She watched as her shadow made it farther away from her. "You basically get ten jutsu right there, and you're teaching me one."

"You have taijutsu." At Ilki's confused look, she sighed. "Remember all those kick-boxing classes I dragged you to? Consider it a form. Once you learn how to channel chakra, you'll be confusing people with the weirdness. And tomorrow, we can go to the library and check out some books on what we need to learn."

"I guess." She sighed dramatically. "Can you at least give me one other jutsu to practice?"

"Les sigh. Offensive or defensive?"

"Hmmm. With Kage Ridatsu offensive, let's go with defensive."

Nodding, she dispelled her Taiyoukei Hakkei and did different seals. "This one is Kage Sanran. You disperse into pure shadow and retreat into whatever shadows there are. Good for avoiding attacks or moving from one hiding spot to another."

"Kage Sanran!"

Part of her arm disappeared, and she screamed. Dispelling the jutsu as fast as she could, she found her arm back in place and nothing wrong. With a sigh of relief, she glared at Mirani.

"What are the downsides to this one?" she grumbled.

"Bright light affects how well you can regroup. If that happens, you have to find a big enough shadow to hide in so you can siphon what you need off of that shadow to recreate whatever got destroyed by the light."

"Oh joy."

"Yep. Taiyoukei Hakkei: Suisei!"

A rather pathetic-looking tornado appeared in front of her, fizzling when it moved away from her. She frowned and tried again as Ilki attempted the Kage Ridatsu again, and this time a stronger tornado appeared. As it spun away from her, the pile of weapons they had collected started to shake, and a few of the lighter ones flew at the now-magnetic tornado.

Later, after it was finally dark, the girls had sort of started to get better at their jutsu. It was not as strong as it could be, but Ilki was quite happy with her progress. As they walked back to their apartment, she pondered how much they would have to practice before they would be better kunoichi. 'If I'm going to die, I mind as well become as awesome as I can beforehand,' she thought with a half smile.

–

The morning sun streamed into Mirani's room, warming her room and making her quite reluctant to move. She added exhaustion to the list of reasons why she should not get up, seeing as the moment she moved to turn over, her body hurt. 'But I didn't even do taijutsu or weapons,' she thought drowsily. 'And I didn't think I exhausted my chakra reserves that much.'

Her thoughts of sleeping again were interrupted as her door practically flew open to Ilki's kick. Groaning, she turned away from the girl who would drag her to another training ground, waste money, and probably make something explode.

"I had an epiphany in the middle of the night!" her friend said with her tone cheery. "I was playing with chakra 'cause I couldn't sleep, and I found how to focus it to my hands and feet. Let's go climb some trees!"

"Ilki..." Glancing at the alarm clock on the nightstand, she saw the time and groaned. "It's SEVEN in the MORNING. If there's no school, I don't get up for at least another six hours."

"Don't you want to become a powerful kunoichi?" She was bouncing up and down, bursting with energy.

"...if I give you money for ramen, will you leave me alone for at least another hour?"

"...maybe..."

A few seconds later, Mirani once again had peace and quiet for her snoozing. But ten minutes into her blissful slumber, she was rudely awakened by someone knocking on her door. Mumbling obscenities at whoever _dared_ to wake her up – _if it's Ilki, I'm gonna punch her into next week – _she dragged herself to the front door and pulled it open with such force that she visibly flinched in pain.

"Good morning."

Iruka stood at her door innocently, as if all normal people were up and awake at that time of the morning. 'They are,' some part of her mind reminded her. 'You're just not a morning person.' He was holding papers in his hands, papers that he gave her after she glared at the offending door that had caused her arm pain.

"Hokage-sama asked me to deliver the papers you and your friend will need to fill out in order to attend the academy," he said. "Attendance today is not mandatory, but starting tomorrow, it will start going on record."

"What time does it start?" she asked absentmindedly, flipping through the papers.

"Classes start at 7.30 in the morning, with a break at noon, and ending at four in the afternoon."

Nodding her thanks, she took the papers inside and closed the door. Making herself a cup of coffee from the groceries that had magically been in the apartment before they had gotten there, she sat down at the kitchen table and pondered over the papers. Most of the ones that required guardian signatures had been signed by the Hokage. The only papers they had to sign were waivers, acknowledgments that they were entering a school that taught how to kill, and that they accepted the consequences that would come if they needed to be disciplined.

The last paper they had to sign piqued her interest, and she read over it carefully as she sipped her coffee. It laid out the admission guidelines. _First, you must love the village and hope to preserve peace and prosperity. Second, you must have a mind that will not yield, able to endure hard training and work. Lastly, be healthy in mind and body. If the above conditions are met, admission to the Academy will be granted._ Frowning, she studied them again. Of course she loved the village, and she wanted to preserve peace, however hard that would be in the shinobi world. She had a healthy body and, despite how deep it was in the gutter, her mind was relatively healthy, too.

It was the second guideline that got her. She was lazy, but she would endure once she got the stamina – but she was more worried about a mind that would not yield. Just because it was healthy did not mean she knew it would not yield. The future was haunting her, and she wondered just how far her mind would yield then. 'Can I rightfully agree to this with the knowledge that I have?' she wondered, her pen hovering over the signature line. 'I want to...I can try for as long as the outline lets me...'

A sudden _bam_ shook her out of her thoughts as Ilki came bouncing through the door. Taking one look at all the paperwork on the table, the girl turned to run out of the house. Even though she had turned, Mirani's glare was irritated enough that she backpedaled and sat down at the table.

"These are for you to sign," Mirani said as she pushed several papers over. "The last one is the requirements for admission into the Academy."

"Blegh, paperwork is the devil." She signed them carelessly, then passed them back. "When are we going to the Academy?"

"Well..." She glanced at the clock. "It starts in seven minutes. But Iruka said we didn't have to show up today. And did you even look at the last one?"

"Yes, and I wholeheartedly agree with all of them." She stood and stretched. "You should get changed. I wanna go to the Academy and learn."

Mirani froze. "You..._want_ to learn?"

Her friend shrugged, and she looked out the window to make sure the apocalypse had not just come.

"Hurry up. I don't wanna be late, and the Academy is pretty much a five minute walk from here."

Dressing quickly, she joined her impatient and hyper friend outside to "fast-walk" to the Academy. It was then that the pain from yesterday's training hit her full force, and she growled.

"Ilki...I'm going to kill you later."

* * *

**Glossary:**

_Mirani's Jutsu:_

Hoshiboshiton – Celestial Body Release [also could be called Star Release].

Taiyoukei Hakkei – Solar System Release, with "Hakkei" meaning to release internal power.

Suisei – the planet Mercury. The inspiration for the jutsu itself came from NASA's website, where it says, "The magnetic field in the solar wind episodically connects to Mercury's field, creating intense magnetic tornadoes that funnel the fast, hot solar wind plasma down to the surface."

_Ilki's Jutsu:_

Kage Sanran – Shadow Dispersion [also could be scattering].

Kage Ridatsu – Shadow Separation.

_Review please! :)_


	5. Academy is Fun, Library is Evil

**REVISED CHAPTER.**

A/N: This used to be a horrible filler. Now it furthers the story! Go me! I'm trying my hardest to pace their training, so tell me if it's not paced enough!

**Disclaimer/Claimer:** I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own the characters Mirani and Ilki, as they have previously been copyrighted to me by a friend who borrowed them for her privately published book. So yay, I own something!

Glossary at end of the chappie.

* * *

While they made it to the Academy, they were two minutes and forty-five seconds late. At least, that was what Ilki thought the clock said – she had never been very good with time. Or perhaps she was distracted by the happiness that came with having the same class with Naruto. There was something quite satisfying about being friends with the main character of a popular anime and manga, even if that friendship was based off of the awesomeness of ramen.

Iruka, who had still been taking attendance when the girls had walked in, had dismissed the fact that they were tardy and gave them seats. She had, to her delight, been placed next to Naruto, while Mirani had been placed... Frowning, she realized she did not know where her friend had been assigned to sit. After a moment of looking around, she found her sitting directly across from her aisle, next to the pink-haired banshee that was Haruno Sakura. Shooting her friend a sympathetic look, she then engaged with Naruto in a ramen-related discussion.

She quickly found, after Iruka shushed the two of them repeatedly, that she did not know as much as she thought she did. Sure, most of her classes were easy – considering she had been a senior beforehand. Reading translated directly into English for her, science was quite behind in the technology department (minus the health aspects, she found those were quite advanced), and math was a breeze. Geography was not too hard, considering she knew the other countries and villages from her obsessive reading of the manga, but her writing class proved to be her downfall. There were simply _way_ too many things to learn when the Japanese language was involved.

All the simple classes were in the morning, whereas the afternoon classes were taijutsu and ninjutsu. She found that they did not really have genjutsu classes, and that they had already missed most of them. That did not bother her, since to her, all she had to do was form a random sign and shout "KAI!". If that did not work, she stabbed herself in a non-vital area. 'Easy,' she thought. Ilki really loved to be blissfully ignorant.

When the class was dismissed for lunch, she bounded after her blond friend to the courtyard, where he sat on the lone swing. Plopping down on the ground, she then realized she had not brought lunch – a thought that was punctuated with a loud growl from the offended organ.

"You don't have lunch either?" Naruto asked her, looking down at her from his swing.

"We kinda rushed out of the house this morning so we wouldn't be late." She sighed. "Well, _too _late. Miserable Mirani wouldn't walk fast."

"I should not give you your lunch just for that."

Spinning around, Ilki found her friend standing behind her holding three bentos. Where she got them was anyone's guess.

"Oh well, more for me..." She turned to leave.

"Mirani..." Sighing, she began the long groveling that her friend demanded when someone wronged her. "I'm sorry, you are awesome, and I will never doubt your infallible logic again."

"Wrong apology." She stuck out her tongue, but handed a bento to her. Then she tossed one to Naruto. "Eat up, whisker-boy."

He looked at her with a strange expression, but then smiled when he realized she was not being mean to him. "Thanks, Mirani-chan!"

The girl shook her head and, with a sigh, walked away to find a quiet place to eat her own lunch. Ilki watched with a horribly concealed humorous expression as Ino came over and said something, to which Mirani stared at her blankly. Sakura then came over and yelled at Ino. With an annoyed look, she stood up and walked back over to her and Naruto.

"I need fan girl repellent," she deadpanned, sitting down with an irritated sigh. "'You better not go after Sasuke-kun!' 'Ino-pig, Sasuke-kun is mine!' 'In your dreams, forehead!'"

"I'll never understand what they see in him," Naruto said, nodding his head as he stared longingly after Sakura.

"And I'll never see what you see in pinky." Ilki took a bite of her food as she scanned the courtyard.

"Well she's pretty, and smart -"

"I will barf on you if you continue." Mirani accompanied her statement with a jab of her chopsticks. "That's a promise."

Lunch passed by quickly after the fan girls went away, and Ilki enjoyed having another ramen-related conversation with Naruto. Honestly, she did not know there was so much to know about ramen! While her friend zoned out in her own little world where authoresses go, she basked in the world of Naruto. Again.

–

Taijutsu classes went by as slowly and painfully as possible. All Mirani wanted to do was curl up and take a nap, but _noooo_. Instead she had to sit through a ninjutsu class, too. Iruka was apparently teaching the Bunshin no Jutsu to the class, and she was tempted to zone out. But she decided against it, instead paying attention to how chakra worked with the jutsu.

She was smart, not Shikamaru smart, but smart enough to know that she could apply what she learned to the jutsu that she and Ilki needed to learn. Of course, that was interrupted when Iruka had Uchiha Sasuke demonstrate the jutsu. The fan girls would not _shut up_ after that, and she had the sudden urge to smack a few people.

The day could not end fast enough. She was at the end of the rather long amount of patience she had, and all she wanted to do was sleep. When she went to leave, though, Ilki proceeded to drag her away from the direction of the apartment and towards another training ground. At first, she protested, but then her friend threatened to start practicing her weapon throwing. Her loud protests died down to incoherent grumblings.

"Couldn't we have gone to the library and checked some books out instead?" she asked as she leaned against a tree.

"I want to run up a tree."

And with that, Ilki ran at a tree. She had barely touched her foot to the bark when a cracking sound was heard. Confused, she looked at her foot – and found it inside the tree.

"It's going to eat me!" she wailed, tugging at her foot.

"Too much chakra, dear," Mirani said with a sigh as she studied the tree. "That's the amount of chakra you need to put in your jutsu."

Her friend growled. "I'd like to see you try."

Shrugging, she thought back to the lessons she had almost zoned out on. If she was correct, she needed a fair amount, but not as much as Ilki. 'Too little and I'll fall off,' she remembered as she factored in her weight and height before stepping at the tree. She had almost made it to the first sturdy branch before she fell backwards, landing on the ground with a loud _thud_.

"Ow."

"...how'd you do that?" Her friend had finally managed to pull her foot from the tree.

"I paid attention in class." She smirked. "You know, you could learn if we went to the library and checked out some books..."

All she heard was a growl and a lamely named "Ilki...ton: MASS FLYING WEAPONS!" before a large amount of sharp, shiny metal was launched _everywhere._ She found herself learning how to better duck and run as she dodged most of them, only receiving a few nicks and scratches.

"...you are _so_ helping me find all of these." Emerging from the "relative" safety a tree had provided, Mirani glowered at her friend.

"Um...Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Another lame, half-dead clone appeared at her feet, and she frowned. "Dang it.."

Twenty minutes later, the authoresses was stalking the woods in between the training grounds for the last two kunai when she almost got attacked by another barrage of weapons. She almost started yelling obscenities at her friend when she realized she had actually stumbled into another training ground. Her classmate and the prince of all things emo, Uchiha Sasuke, was scowling at her for interrupting his training.

"Well _sorry_," she grumbled, then turned around and shouted into the woods. "ILKI! Taiyoukei Hakkei: Meiousei!"

A large blob of blue goo went flying into the forest, followed by a squeak and then blessed silence. Smirking, she walked away from a suddenly curious, power-hungry Uchiha and back into the forest. There she found her friend frozen solid as she tried to run away.

"Maybe I should just leave you like this."

–

"I hate the library."

Ilki was promptly 'shush'ed by the librarian as Mirani continued to stare at the section of books in front of her. Ignoring her friend's complaints, she handed the still-cold girl a stack of books she pulled off the shelf. Then she walked farther down, leaving her with a heavy stack of books.

"Aren't you going to help me her?" she asked, trying to balance the books.

"Those are on chakra control, which you need more than I do." The authoress ran a hand over a few more books. "These are on jutsu...we'll need these. And these over here are on taijutsu."

Several minutes and books later, the girls checked out two rather large stacks of books. They were on their way back to their apartment, with Ilki complaining about wanting ramen, when a random shinobi appeared out of thin air. He startled them, almost making them knock over the eighteen books.

"Hokage-sama requests your presence," the shinobi said. "He said replies have come to the missives he sent out. You are to head there directly..." He frowned at the books. "Well, you can drop those off first."

'Oh boy, here comes the moment of truth...' Mirani thought as they walked back to their apartment. 'Are we in my story or not? We're either going to die now or later...' A dark cloud of gloom hung over her, and she glared at the Hokage building. 'This is gonna be bad...'

* * *

**Glossary:**

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu – Shadow Clone Technique.

Taiyoukei Hakkei: Meiousei – Solar System Release: Pluto. Inspiration for Pluto's ability once again came from NASA: "...populated with thousands of miniature icy worlds, which formed early in the history of our solar system. These icy, rocky bodies are called Kuiper Belt objects or transneptunian objects. Pluto is about two-thirds the diameter of Earth's Moon and probably has a rocky core surrounded by a mantle of water ice."

_Review please! :)_


	6. Must Train, Must Have Montage

**REVISED CHAPTER.**

A/N: Hooray, character development. Go me! Much better than before, with Mirani and Ilki having to work for their abilities. No more Mary-Sues here. (If you're reading this and you keep reading onto the other chapters, you're prolly going to go "LIES!". But I haven't revised those yet. So have patience. If you're not thinking that, then this A/N is old and they have been revised. Then you're in luck! Go you!) Unfortunately, this chapter was kind of short, as I had nowhere else to cut it off without launching into the next chapter.

**Disclaimer/Claimer:** I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own the characters Mirani and Ilki, as they have previously been copyrighted to me by a friend who borrowed them for her privately published book. So yay, I own something!

Glossary at end of the chappie.

* * *

Whoever the shinobi was, he did not give off any hints at what could lay ahead of them. It was possible he did not, however, and simply had no hints to give. Still, Ilki had thought that if they were going to be locked away for impersonating people, they would have sent more than one shinobi. With a sudden epiphany, she started glaring at any trees and bushes. 'They could have ANBU hiding in them,' she thought as she walked. It never occurred to her that the ANBU were smarter than that.

Reaching the Hokage's office, they were immediately let in. Apparently, the old man did not have anything else to do – especially if he was ignoring the huge pile of papers sitting on his desk. She did not blame him, considering her hatred for paperwork. Her mind traveled to all the papers she had had to sign earlier in the day, and Mirani had to nudge her to get her to come back to the present.

"The daimyō of both your countries has agreed to let you stay here," the Hokage told them, and she restrained herself from doing her happy dance. "They were quite surprised to hear about your survival, especially yours, Ilki. It seems almost everything in Aneigakure was destroyed, including records. Only when one of the guards stepped forward to vouch for you did the daimyō believe the missive – he was one of the few survivors and knew you were not in the death count." He shifted his gaze to Mirani. "As for you, Getsugakure has been informed. They want to come and see you for themselves, but they have been rather preoccupied with problems they did not want to elaborate. But they, rather reluctantly, it seems, have agreed to let you stay."

"That is great news!" the very happy Ilki said, resisting the urge to "squee" and run around in circles. "Arigatō gozimasu, Hokage-sama!"

"I also wanted to know if the year I put you in for the Academy is going to work out," the Hokage continued. "I know you have only had one day, but I had wanted to put you in the year your age group was in. If it's too hard, we can push you back a year..."

"It's fine," Mirani said, shooting a look at her friend, "as long as we keep up on our studies. How long do we have until the graduation exam?"

"Three months."

Ilki resisted the urge to frown – she was going to be dragged through studies at this rate.

"Hmm." Her friend pursed her lips. "I think we can make that work. I'd really hate to not be able to graduate because we couldn't catch up."

Apparently it never occurred to her that they were trying to catch up on what the other students had been doing for years, or so Ilki thought as she glared at her friend. To catch up would be to put them on a rigorous training schedule that even the lazy authoress would hate. When they were dismissed, she decided to give her a piece of her mind.

"Three months? You really expect us to be decent genin by then?"

Her friend sighed. "I know. But I don't wanna be left behind. This is the year the Rookie Nine will graduate, and I wouldn't mind making that the Rookie Eleven."

"Do you realize how much sleeping time training is going to cut into?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "You're not going to survive."

"Me and coffee are going to become good friends." Her eye twitched. "Now let's go get some scrolls to write jutsu down, then we need to get started."

–

A kunai went flying into the woods, barely missing Mirani's head and going in the opposite direction of the target. Her eye twitched, and she whirled on the girl who was staring blankly at the empty target. She took a deep breath, pinched the bridge of her nose, and exhaled, trying to calm down. It did not work.

"ILKI! It's been a month! You should have better aim by now!"

With a shrug, she replied, "At least I can walk up trees now. And I'd like to see you try to hit that target, Miss Can't-Hit-The-Broadside-of-Barn."

With a _thlunk_, a kunai embedded itself into the dummy – only slightly off from the bull's-eye.

"I-wha-but-" She looked between Mirani and the dummy, gaping. "But YOU DON'T HAVE AIM! How is this even possible?" With a glance at the sky, she continued, "And why isn't the sky falling? This is a sign of the APOCALYPSE."

"How are your jutsu going?" she asked, ignoring her friend's shock. "You get down the first two?"

"Mostly. I started on another one from the scroll you wrote out for me. How about your Taiyoukei Hakkei?"

"Suisei and Meiousei aren't too bad anymore," she said, shrugging. "I haven't really worked on any others."

Her friend was no longer paying attention to her, instead staring after a blob of bright orange. Squinting against the sunlight, she realized that the orange blob was actually Naruto, and he was heading in the direction of Ichiraku.

"Oh no, you are not leaving me here to clean up all these weapons..."

But Ilki was already gone.

"I swear, one of these days, I really will kill you."

–

An evil cackle was heard throughout the training grounds, making the birds that were stupid enough to be in the surrounding woods fly away rather fast. In one of said training grounds, Mirani was shaking her head in irritation as her friend did a victory dance around a splintered log.

"Bwhahaha!" She clapped her hands. "You were right, those kick-boxing skills are really coming in handy! That log never knew what hit it!"

"Now fight a real person."

Ilki barely had time to dodge a punch to the head, and she frowned. "You've managed to pick up the Academy's style of taijutsu? That style is boring."

"I want you to learn how to get around the Academy style," she replied, aiming a kick at her friend's legs. "It'll be the most common taijutsu you'll run into around here, aside from Jūken. Then we'll switch roles."

Several punches, kicks, "ows", and _thuds_ later, the two were sitting on the ground, panting.

"You gotta see this one jutsu I've been working on." Forming a few seals, Ilki smiled. "It works in great with taijutsu. Kage Nageyari!" In her hand appeared a black spear with fuzzy edges, as if it did not have a definite form. "See, I can throw it if I get a pause in a fight. And, _and_, if I'm near shadows, I can use them to make it bigger!"

"I'm surprised we're learning jutsu so fast," Mirani said, eying the spear with caution – with her friend's aim, who knew where that thing could go. "I mean, I know we already have the jutsu, but trial and error should be harder. We should be struggling with shape and nature transformation, but we're not. All we do is stick chakra in the jutsu and expect it to come out."

"Don't the seals help manipulate the chakra and whatnot? Besides, if we know what the jutsu does, all we have to do is use our minds to mold our chakra into what we need it to be." Her friend frowned, trying to remember the episodes that explained jutsu. "And it's not like we're trying to create a whole, brand-spanking new jutsu no one has used before. These jutsu were, 'apparently', already here." She coughed, and mumbled under her breath, "Because you're the authoress and wrote them in."

"Shh." Then she shrugged. "Thinking to deeply makes my brain hurt."

–

"Bunshin no Jutsu!"

An almost-perfect clone appeared next to the authoress, and she smiled. Then she kicked the clone, receiving a satisfying 'poof' in return.

"I want to graduate with the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," Ilki said with a dramatic sigh as she flopped down on the ground. "My Bunshin no Jutsu is fine, but it's just not so...epic."

"As long as you can graduate tomorrow." Joining her friend on the ground, Mirani stared off into the sky. "How did you do on your tests today?"

"Above average on everything except writing. That was below average." She wrinkled her nose. "You?"

"Same, except I got proficient on writing." At her friend's confused look, she said, "I studied Hiragana and Katakana way back when."

"Well aren't you lucky."

They continued their training for the day, with the rather rigorous training schedule they had set up three months ago. For them, they had gotten used to it – and felt as if they had caught up to the Academy level. Satisfied, they went to bed that night with high expectations for the next day.

* * *

**Glossary:**

Jūken – Gentle Fist.

Kage Nageyari – Shadow Spear [could also be lance].

Bunshin no Jutsu – Clone Technique.

_Review please! :)_


	7. Of Coffee and Doom

**REVISED CHAPTER.**

A/N: I do believe I have hurt my hands, rewriting seven chapters in about twenty-four hours. Ow. Anyways, now we're getting somewhere in the world. Woot!

**Disclaimer/Claimer:** I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own the characters Mirani and Ilki, as they have previously been copyrighted to me by a friend who borrowed them for her privately published book. So yay, I own something!

* * *

"What would you do if they didn't have coffee in this world?"

Taking a sip of her coffee, Mirani gave a sidelong look at her friend. With coffee in hand, the two were heading to the Academy for their final exams. Even though they both knew what the ninjutsu test would be, she was slightly worried about the taijutsu and genjutsu exams. In preparation for those exams, she had had her coffee black that morning – better to be wired and awake than sleepy and failing.

"I would be failing the Academy simply because of tardiness." She looked lovingly at her cup of coffee. "But we don't have to deal with that."

For the morning, they only had their tai- and genjutsu exams, which both passed easily (except that they told Ilki to not be so loud when she dispelled a genjutsu). Both of them had learned the Academy's taijutsu over their vigorous training schedules, even though they preferred to add kick-boxing skills for the surprise element. After lunch, they were told that for their ninjutsu exam, they would have to do the Bunshin no Jutsu.

When they were called, they were both able to create clones. They each received their hitae-ite with happiness, though Ilki had a bit more gusto. When the class was dismissed, though, she saw Naruto sitting by himself on his swing, looking sad and dejected. She almost went over to him, but Mirani stopped her.

"Let Mizuki handle this one," she whispered. "This is not our job."

–

Ilki sat dejectedly at Ichiraku, missing her blond bundle of hyperness. While she knew he was off graduating on extra credit, it did not change the fact that she was lonely, sitting on a stool with no one to talk to. Even her best friend had gone home to catch up on sleep, tired of all the training she had been doing and weapons she had been dodging.

It was getting late, and she was about to go home when she heard voices nearby. Quickly forming a few seals, she performed her Kage Sanran and disappeared into the shadows of the building. Hoping that the jutsu also covered her chakra signature, considering she was not technically whole, she strained to listen from the piece of shadow that was her ear.

"So, Uzumaki passed."

The voice was lazy, a voice she recognized as the silver-haired jōnin Hatake Kakashi. She frowned, wondering who he was talking to about her blond friend.

"He did, and it complicates matters."

'That...that's the Hokage,' she thought, her shadow twitching. 'But...what's going on?'

"It does, now? How is that?"

"We already had an uneven amount of graduates, and while before we were just going to have one team of four, now the problem is harder to solve. We cannot have a cell of two, nor can we have a cell of five."

"How does this involve me?"

"You have a record of failing your students because of your hard test. While I acknowledge that your test truly tests the students' ability to work as a team, with the record you have, I'd like to give you a five person cell."

"You believe they won't be able to work together, and I'll fail them all. Problem solved."

Reforming several buildings away, she glowered in the direction the two shinobi had been walking in. 'How dare they think they can do that?' she thought with irritation. 'Especially if team seven has to be brought down because of us! I need to find Mirani!' Quickly, she ran towards their apartment.

She knew her friend would be pissed if she was woken up, but this time she had a reason. Bolting into the girl's room, she began to shake her shoulders until she suddenly flipped her on the ground with a kunai to her throat.

"What, is, _wrong_?" she hissed, getting up when she realized who her "attacker" was.

"You're not gonna believe what I just heard..." Then she proceeded to babble a mile a minute.

"Well." Mirani pinched the bridge of her nose. "I...knew we'd be in a situation like this. I just didn't know...how the situation come about."

Somehow, Ilki understood what the authoress meant: that she had known what team they would be on, she just did not know how. "How do we fix it?"

"That is going to be more of a challenge." She rubbed her temples. "Somehow, we're going to have to go them to work together. We need to pass that bell test."

–

The coffee mug in front of her, Mirani laid down on her desk and wished she had gotten more sleep. While she was glad she had not been woken up for nothing, she was not happy that it had made a dent in her usual eight hours of sleep. Her eyes were just closing when, from across the aisle, Ilki jumped out of her desk.

"Naruto! You graduated!"

This announcement created a chorus of "Naruto, you shouldn't be here!", which only made him start pointing to his hitae-ite and shouting. Then Ino and Sakura fought their way in, started fighting, and the noise skyrocketed. She plugged her ears with her hands and glared at no one in particular, until a _thud_ shook the entire row. Glancing up, she saw Naruto perched on the desk, scowling at Sasuke. Across the way, Ilki held up her hand and smirked, counting down with her fingers.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the dobe and the teme!" she said after a stunned silence.

While Ilki rolled on the floor laughing, Mirani sipped her coffee and watched the fight until Iruka walked in. He easily separated the fan girls from the well beat-up (was that smoke coming off some of his wounds?) Naruto, fondly patting him on the head before walking back to the front of the room. 'I don't think he's in on the Hokage's plan,' she thought as she watched him. 'No, he wouldn't want to think that his favorite, albeit stupid, student is "doomed" to fail.'

"Starting today, all of you are real shinobi..." the sensei began. "But you are still genin." He droned on about missions, the village, and their new teachers, the jōnin, before he began to rattle off the teams. "The next team I will call is team seven." Frowning, he studied the paper as if he could not believe what was written on it. "Because of the uneven amount of graduates, this team will consist of...five students."

"That's not fair!" some random genin said. "Won't that make that team more powerful than any other one?"

"Are you doubting Hokage-sama's instructions?" His tone was threatening, but his expression revealed his own doubt. "Team seven will consist of Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, Samiu Ilki, and Tahigoto Mirani."

Naruto had his little outburst, to which Mirani ignored while draining the last of her coffee. While the sensei continued to give out the other teams, she studied her new teammates. Of course, her friend would be easy to work with – they trained everyday together. Sakura would be dead weight for at least another three to four years, so getting her to work with them would not be too hard; she would want to find an easy way to keep up with her beloved "Sasuke-kun."

The hyperactive blond would be a bit harder to work with, but she was sure Ilki would manage to somehow keep him in-line. But the brooding Uchiha... She frowned as she thought about him. The boy hated working with others, especially when he thought they would only hurt his chances at getting more power. Getting him to work with them would be hard, very hard, and that could prove problematic. 'This will be interesting...'

–

While the rest of team seven had split up in their lunch dispute, the girls had merely gone to the room they were to meet their jōnin sensei in. Mirani produced bentos from thin air again – though she really just kept buying them weekly – and the two ate without the interruptions of henged blonds and pissed-off emos.

"So this is going to sound completely weird, but..."

Ilki's voice split through the air, interrupting the authoress's thoughts on the future. Looking up, she sighed and leaned back in her chair.

"Shoot."

"When you thought of me, did you.." She frowned, and shot her a glance that gave away the fact that she wanted to ask something the hidden ANBU should not hear.

"Write it down." She thanked whatever deities there were that the ANBU could not read English.

After a moment, a piece of paper slid across the desk. In Ilki's rather neat handwriting, the words read: _When you designed my character, was she supposed to hear voices in her head? I keep feeling this sense of wanting the darkness and causing of destruction, and I'm starting to worry._ She frowned, rereading the words, before writing: _I'm...not sure. But I do think my outline as taken artistic license with some of the things I had. I always knew technology was smarter than what we gave it credit for._

_But...this voice, it makes me think of the episodes where the Kyuubi talks to Naruto. I'm starting to worry...what if I have a demon inside me?_ came the reply, making her frown even deeper. She quickly scribbled: _I want you to lift your shirt and focus chakra to your abdomen. We'll see if we can see a seal._ Nodding, the darker-skinned girl lifted her shirt slightly while closing her eyes. For a moment, nothing happened, and Mirani almost let out a sigh of relief. Then the air around her friend rippled, and black markings appeared on her stomach.

"Oh no." She sucked in that sigh of relief. "That is _not good_."

Just then, the door slammed open, and Ilki quickly tugged her shirt down. The bounding ball of energy that was Naruto came bouncing in, oblivious to the gloom that had begun to hang in the room. He smiled cheerily at Mirani, who absentmindedly waved, before engaging a rather shocked, newly-discovered Jinchūriki in ramen discussion. A few minutes later, Sakura walked in with a depressed expression, and soon after her, the brooding emo prince stalked in.

A few hours passed as they waited for their sensei to grace them with his presence. While the ramen discussion continued, it was occasionally interrupted by an irritated pinkette. Sasuke sent the occasional glare in his arch-rival's direction, and Mirani stared off into space. 'Things are changing, and not for the better,' she thought. 'If this is any indication for the future, we are so screwed...'

Naruto eventually got irritated with their late sensei and set the eraser trap, to which the emo prince condoned and Sakura agreed – mostly because she just liked to agree with her beloved. The silver-haired Kakashi glowered at them all before sighing.

""How should I say this? My first impression of you: you're all idiots."

An argument later, they moved to the roof to continue their conversation in the absence of the chalk dust that the eraser had spread in the room – surprisingly, it was quite full of that stuff. Kakashi leaned against the railing of the roof, surveying them all again.

"Let's see..." he finally said. "Why don't you introduce yourselves?"

"Introduce ourselves?" Sakura blinked. "What should we say?"

"What you like, hate, your dreams, and hobbies." He shrugged. "Something like that."

"Hey, why don't you introduce yourself first, sensei?" Naruto asked, accompanying his question by jabbing the air with his finger, then fiddling with his hitae-ite.

"Me? I'm Hatake Kakashi. What I like is not importatn, nor are my dislikes. You don't need to know what my hobbies are, or what I plan to do in the future." Ignoring his team's sweat-drops, he pointed at the pinkette. "You next."

"I'm Haruno Sakura. My likes, or rather the person I like..." - she blushed as she glanced at the Uchiha quickly and squaled – "my hobbies..." - another glance at the emo prince – "my plans for the future..." She ended with a squeal.

"And your dislikes?"

"NARUTO!"

Said blond looked down at the ground dejectedly, fiddling with his hitae-ite. "I'm Uzumake Naruto! I like to eat ramen, but I like the ramen at Ichiraku that Iruka-sensei bought for me even more. I hate the three minutes that I have to wait after I put the hot water in. My hobbies are eating ramen, and my plans for the future are to become the greatest Hokage ever, dattebayō! That way all the villagers will recognize my existence!"

"I'm Samiu Ilki. I like to write and train, along with going out to eat ramen with Naruto. I dislike stereotypes and discrimination. My hobbies are writing and training, and my plans for the future..." She shrugged. "Don't really know."

"I'm Tahigoto Mirani. I used to like writing, but I'm not so sure about it anymore. I also like to train and drink coffee. I dislike waking up in the mornings. My hobbies are training, reading, and sleeping, and my plans for the future..." She wrinkled her nose. "I'd rather not say."

A dark cloud of gloom appeared as the emo prince glared at no one in particular. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are many things that I hate, and I don't particularly like anything. I don't have any hobbies...and I can't really call it a dream...but I have an ambition: the resurrection of my clan, and to kill a certain man."

The crickets came out, even though it was the middle of the day, but then Kakashi resumed talking. He told them that they would be participating in a survival exercise the next day.

"This training is a very difficult exam with a failure rate of over sixty-six percent." After Naruto complaining, he continued, "Tomorrow you have to show your real skills on the training ground. Bring all the shinobi tools you have. And skip breakfast...you might throw up."

* * *

Gasp. there is no glossary needed for this chapter! Unless you do not know what hitae-ite means. It's the ninja band, forehead protector, etcetera.

_Review please! :)_


	8. To Prove Them Wrong

**REVISED CHAPTER.**

A/N: I know the whole "get the team to work as one" is cliché, but that's why I added the extra element of "do or die". I use the term "die" here loosely, lol. Anyways, I think it makes it...not so cliché. Hope you enjoy!

**Disclaimer/Claimer:** I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own the characters Mirani and Ilki, as they have previously been copyrighted to me by a friend who borrowed them for her privately published book. So yay, I own something!

Glossary at end of the chappie.

* * *

While she was full of energy at six in the morning, Ilki knew that trying to wake up her best friend could have bad consequences. Both knew that their new sensei was late, two to three hours late, and that they did not have to get there on time. Nerves, however, had gotten to her, and she had barely gotten any sleep that night. The nerves were not just on how the bell test would go the next day – no, they also lingered on the fact that she had something living inside her.

She did not know which demon had been sealed into her, except that it was not the Kyūbi. Any of the others were fair game. Curiosity had been nagging at the back of her mind since the day before, the urge to want to see if she could gain new jutsu getting stronger by the second. Glancing at the clock, she saw she had barely wasted a minute thinking. With a frown, she continued to ponder what would happen if she attempted to contact the bijū inside her.

'Mirani isn't up, and won't be up for at least another hour,' she thought as she rocked back and forth on their sofa. 'And Naruto has no problem _talking_ to his demon, at least in the manga and anime...' With an annoyed sigh, she threw up her hands. 'It won't hurt anyone,' she finally decided. 'Not one little conversation...' Forming a seal, she stopped rocking and closed her eyes. 'Come on out...'

After a while, it suddenly felt rather warm, almost like the sensation when she first touched her chakra. But there was something sinister about the warmth, reminding her of the way it felt before a serious thunderstorm came rolling in. Opening her eyes, she found herself inside her subconscious – and in front of a rather large cage. Looking at her from inside the cage were a pair of eyes, one yellow and one green. Behind the eyes, she could hear the swishing of tails.

"I've never seen you here before," a low, almost purring voice said. "But if you're here, then that must mean you're my host."

"You..." Her eyes widened as the bijū stepped closer to the bars of the cage and into view. "You're the Nibi no Bakeneko..."

The corners of the gigantic cat's mouth twitched. "Well, it's good to know my host is knowledgeable. So what are you here for, kitten?"

"I..." She gaped, and had to physically push her jaw up. "I-I'm allergic to cats."

Silence reigned for a moment before the large beast howled in laughter, even falling over on its side. Its huge body rippled as the laughter kept bubbling forth, and its two tails swished in contentment.

"We're going to get along just fine, kitten," the Nibi said when it had finally reigned in its laughter. "And don't worry – my fur is made out of chakra." Snickering, the cat shook its head. "Allergic to cats..."

"Can you train me?" she asked suddenly. "I really, _really_ want to learn how to best use what's at my disposal."

"We can talk about this later," Nibi replied, turning away from the front of the cage, "when you have more time."

"Arigatō gozimasu!"

She had barely been able to bow before she was launched out of her subconscious. For a moment, she felt as if she was falling, but when she started, she realized she was still on the sofa. Glancing at the time, she saw that almost a whole hour had passed. The sound of running water came from down the hall, and she realized that Mirani had woken up and was in the shower. When she walked out, Ilki immediately ran down the hallway.

"Coffee first, then you," she said as she dodged the flying bundle of darkness.

"But this is _important_," the Jinchūriki grumbled, following her friend to the kitchen. "Super, _duper_ important."

"Alright, alright, what is it?" her friend asked in irritation as she heated up the water for her instant coffee.

"I, um, kinda have the Nibi no Bakeneko inside of me."

She almost dropped the spoon she was using to get the instant coffee powder out as she slowly turned around. "_What?_"

"Yeah..." With a sheepish smile, she scratched the back of her head – a habit she had picked up from Naruto at some point. "I kinda sorta maybe went into my subconscious and talked with the giant cat."

"Are, you, crazy?" her friend hissed, whacking her with the spoon.

"I thought you'd be happy I saved you some work." She rubbed her arm. "Ow, that hurt."

"It's not that I'm not happy..." Her friend frowned as she poured the water into her cup. "I'm sorry, I just...I was worried. I mean, what if the Nibi hadn't been friendly, and you got locked into your subconscious or something?"

"Pfft. The Nibi actually is gonna help me train. Isn't that awesome?"

"Of course!" She gave her a warm smile, but it faltered. "Just...be careful, okay? I don't want anything happening to you."

Giving Mirani a hug, she said, "Don't worry about me. Now hurry up, we don't wanna be later than Kakashi."

–

"Where have you two been?" Naruto asked as the two girls walked towards the bridge that was their meeting area. "You should have been here two hours ago!"

"One hour and thirty-three minutes, actually." Mirani yawned. "I overslept. Besides, Kakashi-sensei isn't even here yet."

"...you had your coffee black, and you're still tired?" Her friend shot her an incredulous look. "Really?"

"Really." She leaned against the railing, across from a brooding Uchiha, hovering fan girl, and hyperactive blond. "So. What do you guys think about the survival exercise?"

"I'm going to pass it, dattebayō!" Naruto smirked. "No way I'm going back to the Academy!"

"I'd rather not go back to that place..." Ilki sighed. "It was so _boring._"

"I know! And Iruka-sensei would always yell at us for talking during class, but who could blame us?"

"Maybe you wouldn't be dead last if you paid attention!" Sakura half-shouted, whacking the blond in the head. "At least Ilki passed!"

"Actually, I failed in the weapons and writing departments." She laughed. "I can't hit sh-"

"Yo."

Their sensei interrupted the girl with a poof of smoke, appearing next to them. He took one good luck at them, and Mirani swore she saw him sigh. 'Probably just wants to get this over with,' she thought in irritation, and she crossed her arms. 'We'll show you...I hope...'

"You're _LATE!_" Naruto and Sakura shouted in unison, earning an irritated glare from the authoress.

"It's too early to yell that loudly..." she mumbled as she rubbed her temples.

Kakashi merely pulled out a clock and walked towards three logs in the middle of the training ground. Curiosity got the better of most of team seven, who followed with the Mirani and Ilki trailing behind. He pressed the top button of the clock, and it made a _click._

"Okay, it's set for noon." Turning back to the genin, he pulled out two bells. "Here are two bells. Your task is to take these from me before the time's up." He continued to explain how lunch would work, and how they needed to come at him with everything they had. When Naruto made a comment about how he had not been able to dodge the eraser, he gave a brief glimpse at the speed a jōnin had. "You must come at me with the intent to kill. Now...begin!"

They scattered – save Naruto, who angrily glared at the man. Frowning, Mirani nodded at her friend, who then bolted out and grabbed the blond before he could do anything stupid. She brought him back to where they were, despite his protests.

"What the heck?" he grumbled, crossing his arms in a childlike manner. "I was totally gonna beat him."

"No, that's not how we're going to do this." Shaking her head, the authoress said, "We need to work together if we're even going to have a _chance_ at getting those bells."

"But...there's three of us and only two bells." He glanced between the two of them. "How is this going to work?"

"We'll worry about that later." Glancing at Ilki, she said, "Go find Sasuke and Sakura and drag them back here. We're going to need everyone."

A few minutes later, she brought back a panicking Sakura and brooding Uchiha.

"This isn't a smart idea, putting us all together," the Uchiha growled. "He's going to sense us from here."

"Then we'll make this quick," Ilki hissed. "But we need to work together."

"B-But, what about the bells?" Sakura asked, her face paling. "We can't all get one..."

"I'll go back to the Academy." Mirani's statement shocked them all, and she raised an eyebrow. "Hey, I don't care. More practice time for me. But I'm willing to help you guys get the bells."

Her friend quickly caught on to her plan and spoke up, saying, "I know I was just complaining...but, I'm with her on this one. I'll go back, too."

"You can't just quit!" Naruto said rather loudly, earning him a round of 'shh'.

"We still have an extra person," Sakura pointed out.

"Worry about it later – we're burning daylight here." The authoress crossed her arms. "We need a plan, and a good one, too. Anyone have ideas?"

"This was your idea." The emo prince glared at her.

She shrugged. "Touché. Hmm. We're going to need a distraction..."

–

The jōnin looked rather peaceful, standing in the clearing with his Icha Icha Paradise book. Ilki frowned as she waited in the bushes, thinking about what this whole exercise was meant to do. 'We'll show you,' she thought. 'I never thought you and the old man would be this evil...I mean, if you wanted us to fail, you shouldn't have put Naruto and Sasuke in this group. While I can see you wanting Naruto to pace his training, and wanting to hold back Sasuke so he did not turn out like his brother...this is just cruel.'

"Kakashi-sensei!"

Jumping out of the bushes, the blond grinned stupidly as he eyed his teacher. She laughed quietly at this part of the plan – Sakura and Sasuke had had such a hard time believing that he could make decent clones now. This was going to be such a pleasant shocker...

"Oh?" He looked up from his book. "Finally coming out now, I see."

"I'm going to beat you, dattebayō! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

About eight other blonds appeared in puffs of smoke, and the man's single visible eye widened. 'Yeah, bet you weren't expecting a kinjutsu from the dead last,' she thought with a smirk. With a shout, the clones attacked Kakashi from all sides, even above. Before he could pull a Kawarimi no Jutsu, the clones moved enough so that Ilki could jump from the shadows.

"Kage Nageyari!"

He was not expecting her to come flying from the shadows, propelled by chakra, with a spear in one hand and a fist in another. Neither was he expecting her strange taijutsu, which he jumped in the air to avoid. 'Just as we thought...'

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!"

Leaping in the air was the Uchiha, spitting up fire all over the place. From the ground, a safe distance away from the fire, Mirani walked out from the trees and smirked.

"Taiyoukei Hakkei: Kaiousei!"

It was not a jutsu she had used before, but Ilki knew from her practice sessions with her friend that she had become extremely skilled in guessing how much chakra would be needed for a jutsu. Considering it was a Taiyoukei Hakkei, she figured it probably took as much chakra as the other ones did, so she probably did not even have to do any math. Either way, the jutsu worked, and a whipping wind slashed its way through the clearing.

While fire was wind's weakness in the circle of what element beat what, she had not intended it to counter the fireball. No, instead it increased the amount of fire and how widespread it was, causing a blazing inferno. Kakashi, who had underestimated his students, was ill-prepared to deal with jutsu that should not be coming from genin.

He barely had time to push more chakra to his feet, making him sink like a rock, before he would have been burned. It was then that Sakura ran from her cover, lunging at her sensei and grazing the bells with her fingers. The moment he heard the _jingle-jingle_ of the bells, however, he snapped away and appeared farther down the field. He eyed them warily, but it was obvious he was surprised at the ferocity of the team – and its teamwork.

"Time to practice some new jutsu," Mirani said, cracking her knuckles as she glared at her sensei. "Let's go again. Ilki, how many weapons do you have on you right now?"

She smirked, realizing what her friend was planning. "Plenty."

"Good." She glanced at Naruto. "I'm going to need you to get ready to send some clones out to track. And Sasuke, let's try not to burn down the forest when we do this. Sakura, same job?"

At Sakura's nod, the Jinchūriki smirked. "I never thought I'd see the day where this came in handy. MASS FLYING WEAPONS...OF DOOM!"

"Hoshiboshiton: Seito Maruyane!"

There were several blinding flashes of light as constellations of stars lit up around the genin, with a bubble-like shield appearing in the shape of a dome. While all kinds of weapons went flying everywhere, the ones that rebounded simply bounced off the shield. Kakashi jumped into the trees to avoid getting hit.

When she was sure that no weapons would magically pick themselves up off the ground and attack them, Mirani dropped the shield. She let out of soft squeak, unused to using the new jutsu. Anything that blocked like that, Ilki figured, probably ate up a good deal of chakra.

"Get scouting, dobe," Sasuke said, glancing around at the empty grounds.

"Teme! I'll show you scouting! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

"Hn."

A bunch of clones appeared and scattered off into the trees, surprisingly quiet for being identicals of the hyperactive blond. It only took a few minutes before Nartuo suddenly perked up and pointed off into the distance.

"They picked up something."

Running through the woods was easy, running quietly was a different thing. Ilki was surprised to see that they could catch up to their sensei, but then realized that he was probably letting them find him. 'Lousy Kakashi,' she thought as she glared into the woods. 'Probably wants to see if we can do teamwork again.'

"Running away from us?" Naruto stepped forward, laughing his head off at what he thought was a victory. "Kakashi-sensei -"

"Naruto, _shut up_!" Sakura whacked on the back of the head. "Get in the game!"

"Right! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

More clones appeared and ran at the man, and over their heads sailed a large shuriken.

"Fūma Shuriken!"

When it missed, Mirani tried to stall again before their sensei could use Kawarimi.

"Taiyoukei Hakkei: Suisei!"

A tornado appeared, whipping violently among the trees as it picked up the discarded weapons; it became a violent, pointy and sharp tornado. When Kakashi moved in one direction, Sasuke blew another fireball at him. Sakura again went after their sensei when he dodged again, and this time she got a better grip on the bells.

It was then that Kakashi decided to ninja-poof onto one of the branches in the trees, where he eyed his team with interest. While Sakura regained her balance, he held up a hand at the genin who were poised to fight again.

"You pass." He studied each one of them. "I never expected you to be able to work together."

"_What?_" Naruto shouted, scaring away any animal life that the earlier jutsu had not.

"This test is purposely set up to make you fight amongst yourselves," he said. "The purpose is to see whether you can forget about your own interest, and successfully work together under these designed circumstances. I didn't expect you to get that..."

"Wait." Sakura frowned, turning to the two girls. "Is that why you guys said you didn't want bells? You wanted us to think there was less competition for them, so that we'd work together."

"Oh, Sakura," Mirani said with a sigh. "If only you used that brain of yours on something else than the emo prince..."

"The _what_?" Naruto started laughing rather hard, hard enough that he had to hold his stomach.

"Thought you could get us, eh, Kaka-sensei?" Ilki called up with an all-knowing smirk. "You can go tell the Hokage that this time, there are going to be more than nine rookies."

* * *

**Glossary:**

_Kakashi's Jutsu:_

Kawarimi no Jutsu – Body Replacement Technique.

_Sasuke's Jutsu:_

Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu – Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique.

Fūma Shuriken – literally "Wind Demon Shuriken", but known on English TV as "Demon Wind Shuriken".

_Mirani's Jutsu:_

Taiyoukei Hakkei: Kaiousei – Solar System Release: Neptune. Inspiration from NASA came from this: "Dark, cold and whipped by supersonic winds, Neptune is the last of the hydrogen and helium gas giants in our solar system."

Hoshiboshiton: Seito Maruyane – Celestial Body Release: Star Dome.

_Review please! :)_


	9. Red, Red Everywhere

**REVISED CHAPTER.**

A/N: I wanted to change a few things up, and develop Ilki a bit more. I tried to summarize the dialogue in these episodes as much as possible, because I know it can get irritating rereading what we've all read/seen many times before. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer/Claimer:** I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own the characters Mirani and Ilki, as they have previously been copyrighted to me by a friend who borrowed them for her privately published book. So yay, I own something!

Glossary at end of the chappie.

* * *

All was quiet in the forests of Konoha, where a lone cat ran for its life. Chasing it with equal quietness were the six members of team seven. Mirani, however, was mentally cursing its existence and the nature of their mission. D-rank missions were boring, and even team training was not as rigorous as she was used to. Granted, she gave Kakashi credit for doing what he could with such a large team.

She knew he and the Hokage had been surprised to see the results of the initial test. When he told them they passed, she had figured it was because he saw potential in them – and wanted to see how far they could go. That was completely fine with her. Her headset cackled to life, and she pulled her focus to the present.

"What's the distance to the target?"

"Five meters. I'm ready anytime."

"So am I."

"Me too."

"Ditto." Ilki's affirmation was punctuated with a sneeze. "I hate cats..."

She snorted. "I'm good here."

"Okay...go!"

Naruto jumped out of the bushes screaming "Gotcha!". As soon as he grabbed the cat, however, it howled and started attacking him. Then it saw Ilki, and for some reason, walked over and started rubbing around her legs. 'Well, she does have the two-tails in her,' she thought in amusement as her friend started sneezing.

"Ribbon on the left ear...are you sure this is the target, Tora?"

"Achoo! Yes, yes, now get this cat away from me!"

"Good. Lost pet 'Tora' search mission complete."

Twenty minutes later, they were watching the cat's reunion with its master. 'It's a scary sight,' Mirani thought with a sweat-drop. 'As long as we don't have to go back out to catch it...I don't think Ilki can handle it again.' Looking at her team, she added, 'I don't think _any_ of us have the patience to do that again.'

"Hmm." The Hokage puffed on his pipe, eying the team and then glancing down at his papers. "Your next duty is babysitting an elder's grandson, shopping in the neighboring village, and help with the potato digging."

"NO!" Naruto shouted, stomping his one foot. "No thank you! I want to do, you know, a more incredible mission! Find us a better one, dattebayō!"

After Iruka yelled at him and the Hokage started explaining missions, the blond immediately tuned him out and turned to his teammates. "So Ilki, you have any good ramen lately?"

"Have you had, baka," Sakura corrected, whacking him on the head.

"I had miso last night again," Ilki said, tapping her chin. "It was really good."

"Last night I had pork ramen, so miso sounds good for -" He was interrupted by the Hokage yelling at him again, to which he replied with, "Geez, all you do is give lectures like that. But you know what? I'm not the trouble-making gaki you still think I am!"

"Besides," the other Jinchūriki said with a huge smirk, "we work really well together. Ne, Kakashi-sensei?"

After a strange look in her direction, the Hokage sighed. "Okay. If you want it that much, I'll give you a C-rank mission. It's the a protection mission of a certain individual."

The door opened, and they got their first good look at the drunk that was Tazuna the bridge-builder. He looked over all of them, and the scowl on his face got deeper.

"What's this?" he grumbled, then took a swig from his bottle. "They are all a bunch of super brats."

After Naruto threatened to kill him, they were dismissed and given an hour to pack. When they met at the bridge, the hyperactive blond once again launched into one of his Hokage tirades, and then they left. As they walked, Sakura asked about shinobi in other villages, to which Kakashi explained the shinobi village system.

It was not long before they passed the puddle that should not be, where two Kiri ninja appeared and pulled the jōnin to pieces. The genin and Tazuna were shocked, but Mirani – and presumably Ilki – were stunned at how _real_ it looked, even though they knew it was Kawarimi.

"One down," one of the shinobi said, and the two turned to a frozen Naruto. "Two down..."

Sasuke jumped over and, with shuriken, pinned the chains the shinobi were using to a nearby tree. He then delivered a swift kick to each of them, but they then broke free from the chains. Regaining their senses, the two went straight towards Tazuna. Sakura and Mirani were closest to him, and both moved in defensive positions – but Ilki came flying from the shadows.

"Kage Nageyari!"

One of the Kiri shinobi had a cape, to which she threw the spear at it. It pinned the cape to the ground, keeping him from moving forward. She then delivered a swift punch to the shinobi's rather resilient head. That left only one shinobi left that was going after Tazuna.

It was then that Kakashi decided to reappear, stopping the shinobi from harming anyone else. "Naruto, sorry for not helping you right away. I got you injured...I didn't think you wouldn't be able to move." He turned the others. "Nice job Sasuke, Ilki. You too, Sakura and Mirani."

A flurry of events happened, including Naruto and his promise after finding out about the poison-dipped claws and learning about who the Kiri nin were actually after. They traveled to the Nami no Kuni by a silent boat, where Tazuna explained that a evil business man named Gatou was trying to stop the building of a bridge that would significantly help the country. Kakashi decided that they would stay to protect him, and the group continued their journey.

–

"Naruto! You _idiot_!"

Sakura bopped the blond on the head as the boy started to apologize to the frightened snow white rabbit. With a sigh, Ilki looked around. She knew what was coming next – this whole arc was one of the most drawn out ones of the whole series. She rocked back and forth on her heels, watching the woods for any sort of rustle. The moment she heard one, Kakashi yelled for them to duck.

"Well well," he said, eying the man standing on the giant sword that had just flown over their heads – and was now deep into a tree. "If it isn't Kirigakure's missing-nin, Momochi Zabuza." Naruto attempted to attack, but he held him back. "Everybody, get back. This one is on a whole other level. It will be a little tough, unless I do this..." When he pulled up his hitae-ite, he revealed the red eye that was the Sharingan. "Surround and protect Tazuna-san. Do not enter the fight. That's the teamwork here."

"I don't believe that is the wisest idea."

Another figure walked out from the shadows, directly behind the group. It was a male, with black eyes and red hair. Killer intent radiated off him like heat radiates off the sun, stunning the inexperienced genin. 'This...this is crazy,' Ilki thought as she blinked several times. 'There was nothing like this on Earth...this, this _fear_.'

"I'm your opponent, Kakashi," Zabuza said, attacking the jōnin.

"And you guys are mine," the other man said, grinning. "I'm going to enjoy this."

Something caught her eye, the glint of metal from the sun. Around the man's arm was a hitae-ite with a symbol she did not recognize. There was a gash in it, signifying that he was rogue. Cocking her head to the side, she studied the symbol. It reminded her of the Amegakure symbol, the four vertical lines that she had seen in the series around the Chūnin Exams. The only difference was that there were three horizontal lines, forming a rectangle with lines crossing in the middle. To her, it almost looked like a cage...

Her vision blurred suddenly, and she wondered for the briefest moment if she had been hit with a jutsu of some kind – maybe a genjutsu. A horrible pain appeared in the back of her mind, growing to a throbbing pain of indescribable pain. She clutched her head, moaning and making the genin turn their attention from Zabuza and the man circling them like a shark. The symbol from his hitae-ite floated in her mind, and she squeezed her eyes shut, as if closing them could make the image disappear.

_My mother's name was Akane, after her red hair._ She jumped as the thought entered her head, and it was as if the floodgates of her supposedly fake memories had opened. _Father was called Kenji, because he was a smart ruler. Our house was in the middle of the Aneigakure, one of the larger ones because father was on the ruling council. There was a coup from one of the lesser houses...but he would also mention the ruling houses...Raikatuji was the one that father would mention the most. I used to hide on the stairwell when he and mother would talk about the family, and how they wanted...something, and they didn't like that the ruling council had control over whatever it was._

_I had just turned...eight? I was celebrating with my parents when...when there was screaming. Someone pushed me into...a cupboard? It was dark...so dark...but no, there was a crack of light... There was lots of red...so much red...so warm. And there was someone else there...standing over my parents...his hands coated in the red liquid that matched his hair. Was he mother's cousin? He was someone...someone from the ruling council...he had killed them. He...he had helped the coup..._

There was only one image in her head when she finally regained relative control of mind. Around her there was fighting – she had passed out. Kakashi was in the water prison, and Zabuza clone and the man were hounding her teammates. That man – she tensed as she recognized him. His face haunted her memories, stained with the blood of her parents.

"Raikatuji Takeo."

He stopped attacking, surprised to hear his name from the group of genin. "How do you know that?"

"You killed them." Something snapped inside her, and a hiss escaped from her mouth. "You killed them in front of me."

"W-What?" He frowned, studying her. A spark of familiarity flared in his eyes. "You...where have I seen you before?"

But she was no longer listening. Her vision narrowed as the pupils of her eyes became cat-like slits, and a different voice inside her whispered for her to destroy him. She was all to willing to comply with it as her body shook in rage. Red haze appeared in her peripheral vision, but she ignored it. Takeo was her victim, someone who needed to _die._

It did not occur to her that she was now on all fours; neither did she hear the swishing of two tails made from chakra behind her. All she saw was him widening his eyes in fear. He reached for weapons, but she pounced with the speed and grace of a cat.

"You _killed my parents_!" she hissed, swiping at him with a paw. "You betrayed the whole _village_!"

She opened her mouth and blew a ball of fire at him, lighting the woods on fire. He had dodged it, and had put a decent amount of distance between them. Somewhere behind her, the genin broke Kakashi free from the water prison. But she did not care – she wanted the man in front of her dead, his blood on her hands.

"Bijūdama!"

While she had only seen the move on the show, a voice inside her told her exactly how to do it. Some part of her mind told her that the Nibi was fueling her desire for death and destruction, and the saner part of her told her she needed to stop. Mentally, she glared at it until it curled up in one of the far corners of her mind and complained quietly. Turning her attention back to her enemy, she found that the surrounding area had been destroyed. It looked, simply, as if a mini atomic bomb had went off.

Takeo was nowhere to be found, and she circled the crater several times in search of him. For the briefest moment, she caught sight of the hunter nin that was Haku standing over Zabuza's "dead" body, and she growled again. They were enemies, and they associated with the traitor. _They need to die!_ the Nibi told her, and she prepared to pounce.

"Ilki."

Appearing in front of her was Kakashi, and she glared at him. A stupid idea, she realized, as she was caught in the spinning red of the Sharingan. Suddenly, she was very sleepy, and her body _hurt_ worse than it ever had. Curling up on the ground, she closed her eyes. The last thing she heard was a voice, floating somewhere outside of her.

"I...didn't think that a genjutsu would work on her."

* * *

**Glossary:**

Kiri – Mist.

Nami no Kuni – Land of Waves.

_Ilki:_

Akane means "brilliant red" and Kenji means "intelligent ruler".

Bijūdama – Menacing Ball.

_Review please! :)_


	10. Caffeine Withdrawl

**A/N: THIS IS IMPORTANT, SO READ!** If you are one of my faithful readers, you may be staring at this and thinking, 'Didn't she already write a chapter ten? What's going on?' Well, you are correct. _But_, because of the terri-bad-ness of the previous chapters, this story has been completely revised. Same plot, less Mary-Sue-ness and bad development. So, if you are one of my readers who goes straight to the most recent chapter, you should go back and reread the past nine chapters. I think you'll find that it makes much more sense and is now developed nicer. Hope you enjoy!

**ALSO IMPORTANT: **Since there are no more chapters up that need to be revised (I have deleted them), you will no longer see **REVISED CHAPTER** in the beginning. They are not old chapters, no, they are the new chapters that follow what has been posted so far.

A big thank you my faithful reviewers, I love you all! And thank you Jeff, for taking the time to read! Sorry to have sent you the link when it was terribad... And your answer is in chappie nine. :)

**Disclaimer/Claimer:** I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own the characters Mirani and Ilki, as they have previously been copyrighted to me by a friend who borrowed them for her privately published book. So yay, I own something!

Glossary at end of the chappie.

* * *

While they showed hospitality, Tazuna's daughter Tsunami and grandson Inari seemed to be walking on eggshells around the shinobi. The bridge-builder especially eyed a sleeping Ilki and Kakashi – the girl because he was afraid of her pulling the cat stunt again, and the jōnin because that was his only secure, trustworthy protection. It seemed, to him, that the genin would either be a hit or miss when it came to protecting him, something Mirani resented. Sure, they did not seem like strong shinobi, but they were decent. When it came down to it, they could pull together and win.

Her thoughts were interrupted as Sakura walked into the room, carrying a bowl of water and two towels. She set it down in-between the two sleeping figures. Naruto and Sasuke were also in the room, the emo prince brooding in a corner and the blond trying to see under their sensei's mask. He was getting closer and closer to his face when his one visible eye opened. The boy flew back, stunned, as he started to sit up.

"Oh, Kakashi-san, you're awake," Tsunami said as she walked into the room.

"Welcome to the waking world." Mirani smiled at him as she placed a damp cloth on her feverish friend.

Even though he had just woken up, he was already thinking. He explained to them that he thought Zabuza was still alive, and, eying Ilki, he also conceded that Takeo was probably still alive. Then he broke the news that they would be spending the time until their next encounter training. Inari walked in at that point, insulted the shinobi, and Naruto yelled at him. He chased the little boy out of the room, leaving it quiet for once.

"I'm sorry about him," Tsunami said, bowing her head. "Kakashi-san, would you like something to eat?"

At his nod, she left the room. Tazuna did, too, thanking the shinobi for staying on his way out.

"Did you know?" he suddenly asked, looking at the authoress.

She shook her head. "Not until very recently. We accidentally stumbled across the seal, and she traveled into her subconscious to meet it."

"Who?" Sakura looked between the two, her nosy nature taking over. "Is it what caused her to do…whatever it was she did during our fight with Zabuza?"

"From what I saw, it looks like she's the host to the Nibi no Bakeneko," Kakashi said. "One of the tailed demons."

"L-Like the one that attacked the village years ago?" Sakura's eyes widened, and she looked fearfully at Ilki.

He nodded. "This is something Hokage-sama must be informed of."

–

"Don't move too quickly."

Pushing on her friend's shoulders, Mirani attempted to get the girl back in bed. The Jinchūriki groaned and struggled, but eventually laid back. She glared at the ceiling, crossing her arms over the blanket.

"Is everyone okay?" she asked finally, and frowned when her voice came out hoarse. "How long have I been out?"

"Only a few hours." The authoress handed her a glass of water. "It's the middle of the night, and everyone's fine. Well, as fine as they can be, considering Zabuza is still alive."

"So I didn't miss much." She sipped the water.

"Kakashi-sensei wants us to start training tomorrow."

She was silent, and Mirani was left to continue her pondering. 'This was not in the show, and not in my outline,' she thought as she played with the hem of her skirt. 'The outline has taken on a life of its own, and not in our favor…my ending with our death is probably _worse_ now.' That sent chills up her spine, and she shook her head.

"Something weird happened when I saw that man, Takeo," Ilki said, breaking her concentration again.

"Define 'weird'," she deadpanned, shooting her a sidelong glance.

"I got…memories." She wrinkled her nose. "They were so real…"

"What type of memories?"

"I saw…my parents, and the destruction of Aneigakure, I guess." She frowned. "That man had participated in the coup."

"That -" Her eyes widened, and she continued in a lower tone, "That was not how your history was supposed to be."

"What was it supposed to be?"

"Apparently, it doesn't matter anymore." She pinched the bridge of her nose, fighting off a headache. "You weren't even supposed to be a Jinchūriki."

"I…I don't know if that'll happen if I see him again," her friend admitted, fisting her hands in the blanket. "The need to destroy was so _overpowering_, and I don't know how I could control that…"

"The training tomorrow…" She knew what they would be doing, but they had already practiced that at home. Her thoughts faltered, and she backtracked to the fact that she had just called _Konoha_ her _home_. Barely, she managed to finish her spoken thought. "We can see what we can do with training once we show Kakashi-sensei our chakra control."

Her friend raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong?"

"N-Nothing." She waved it off before curling up in her makeshift bed. "Let's get some sleep before tomorrow…it's gonna be a rough day."

Sleep evaded her, even after her friend had fallen back asleep. Mirani could not stop thinking about how much had changed, including her own attitude. 'Konoha is not my home,' she thought as she turned over the seventeenth time. 'My home is not in a fictional world.' Despite her convincing argument against her own mind, she found she was still unsure of everything.

–

There was no coffee in the house. None, nadda, zip – and Mirani was starting to get super mad. If she did not get her coffee, training would go bad for _everyone_. Despite the cloud of gloom over her head, Kakashi dragged her and the rest of team seven into one of the nearby forests. After hobbling along on his crutches, he found a small clearing with a good amount of trees.

"Okay, we will now start the training. But before that, I want to talk to you about the shinobi ability, chakra." After Naruto questioned what chakra was and Sakura explained it, he continued. "Despite the fact that you can already use jutsu, you are not using chakra properly. So, to fix it, you will be climbing trees – without your hands." He formed a sign and walked vertically up the tree, stopping when he was upside-down on one of the branches. "Gather your chakra in the bottom of your feet and climb up a tree. If you can learn this control, you should be able to master any jutsu. Theoretically. It will also help you gather stamina."

"Question." Ilki raised a hand, as if she was still in a classroom. "What if we can already climb a tree like that?"

"Oh?"

"Mirani and I practiced this when we were catching up to the Academy."

"Please, demonstrate. Both of you," Kakashi added when Mirani glared up at him.

'She's sure looking better,' the caffeine-deprived girl thought as she spared a glance at her friend walking up the tree, before returning to glaring at the tree in front of her. Gathering her chakra, she walked up the tree and lounged on one of the branches, tempted to curl up and sleep. Just when she closed her eyes, however, Kakashi's voice cut through her sleep haze.

"D'_heck_ is wrong with you?" she snapped, opening her eyes and growling. "Unless you have coffee, _leave me alone_!"

"You two are coming with me," he said simply, hobbling away on his crutches. "The rest of you, get to work."

Grumbling obscenities the whole way down the tree, she begrudgingly followed him with Ilki bouncing next to her. 'You have a demon, went on a psychopathic almost-killing-spree, and you're still cheerful,' she thought in irritation as Kakashi led them to another nearby clearing with a lake. 'You are weird…'

"I want you two to walk on water." He gestured to the lake. "This requires more work than tree climbing, and you will have to compensate for the moving water below you."

Shrugging, Ilki began practicing, getting wet up to her knees. The authoress glowered at Kakashi, looking between him and the water.

"You don't want to see what I'm like when I'm wet and caffeine deprived."

He gave her one of his eye-smiles. "Then you better learn quickly."

–

It was past noon, going on late afternoon when Mirani dragged herself out of the lake for the forty-sixth time. Behind her, her friend was practically gliding on the water as she ran around in circles. With an irritated snort, she focused chakra to her feet again, and took a step out onto the lake. She was steady for a moment, before Ilki zipped past her and created a small wave. _Plunk, splash_.

"I'm going to kill you!"

Her friend 'meep-ed' before speeding away, off the water and into the woods. Growling, her friend followed, using what chakra she had not wasted to propel her forward. She was incredibly bad at tracking, however, and soon found she could not find the Jinchūriki. Instead, she wandered into the area Naruto and Sasuke were training in – Sakura gone and presumably with Tazuna or Kakashi.

"Hi, Mirani-chan!" Naruto called as he sprung off his tree, slashing at the bark with his kunai to mark his spot.

"Have you seen Ilki?" she asked, glowering at him. "She's in trouble."

"Um…" He scratched the back of his head. "No?"

"Liar." She crossed her arms and tapped her foot. "Now either I blast you into next week, or you tell me which direction she went."

"She came through here several times," he said quickly, pointing in multiple directions. "But I think she went that way."

Frowning, she pulled out one of her scrolls with her jutsu written down. She searched it for a minute, grazing the words with her hands as she read. Finding one she thought suitable, she set the scroll down and formed several seals.

"You may want to duck. Hoshiboshiton: Ryuuseiu!"

A large rock appeared above her head, before shattering with a loud _boom_. Tiny fragments of it went zinging through the air, flying into the forest. A few seconds later, she heard the squeal of her friend as they hit her in the woods, and she ran into the woods in that general direction. She saw the shadow of her friend as she ran through the trees, and tackled her to the ground.

"Eep!" she squeaked as she slammed into the unforgiving ground. "Hey, I was just recently injured!" Suddenly, a smile spread over her face. "You know, if you keep using these strange jutsu, you might attract the attention of a certain power-hungry –" She had to jerk her head quickly to avoid a chakra-enforced punch. "I was just informing you…"

"You really don't know when to _shut up_," the authoress hissed, pulling her hand back. "Especially when you anger the caffeine-deprived one."

Jumping on the opportunity, Ilki flipped her friend onto the ground before speeding away again. "Next time you even get close to me, I'll use my 'Mass Flying Weapons of Doom' on you!"

Growling, Mirani jumped up and sprinted after her friend. 'I'll avenge you, my dearest coffee!' Of course, several hours and jutsu later, she was somehow still wet (somehow Ilki had lured her into _another_ lake) and had fresh wounds from all the weapons that had been thrown. When they walked in for dinner, everyone stared at them as if they were crazy. She smirked when Kakashi shook his head at them.

"You two were supposed to be working on water walking," he said with a sigh.

"Yeah…well…this is why you don't leave us alone. Especially when she didn't have her normal dose of caffeine." Ilki grinned and took a seat at the table. "So, how was everyone else's day?"

* * *

**Glossary:**

_Mirani's Jutsu:_**  
**

Hoshiboshiton: Ryuuseiu – Celestial Body Release: Meteor Shower.

_Review please! :)_


	11. Fear of Falling

A/N: Yay, I gained more readers! :) Anywho, this chappie has a funny story behind it. I was working on it in school, and my teacher caught me (stupid me had opened my book to the wrong chapter - fail). All my teachers know I tend to write through their class, so I was told that if I was to be allowed to write that period, I would have to include something to do with that class. So, I worked a scene where I could use what I had learned. Go me!

The Land of Waves arc is going kind of fast, I know. The next chapter will probably be last part of it. If I feel up to it, I may post before my scheduled post on Saturday. Depends on my mood...but I've been in a serious "Oh-em-gee, REWRITE...MUST RIGHT MORE!" mode, so I've been making seriously long chapters. This one is about twice the length of a normal chapter for me. O.o

Please excuse my attempts at writing fight scenes. I'm more of a romance novelist, and on that note: thank you to my faithful, and new reviewers - and to those of you who want romance (I did put romance as the genre, after all), I am trying to work it in. Unfortunately, writing romance for twelve year old kids is rather hard, and I'm trying to keep the characters as in-character as possible. Romance will grow to be more prominent as the story goes on, but until then, I'll try to add what I can. (CPR maybe? lol) Thanks for putting up with me. -.-'

**Disclaimer/Claimer:** I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own the characters Mirani and Ilki, as they have previously been copyrighted to me by a friend who borrowed them for her privately published book. So yay, I own something!

Glossary at end of the chappie.

* * *

Even though she had spent the first part of her life going through the twelve grades of the American school system, Mirani never thought she would actually use anything she learned. Neither did she ever want to dabble in the path of an iryō-nin. But it seemed like life just loved throwing curveballs in her direction, or so she thought when she was interrupted from her water walking practice on the fifth day they were in the Nami no Kuni. A distraught Sakura had come running into her and Ilki's clearing, half-shouting if they had seen Kakashi.

After resurfacing from the rather cold water, she angrily pulled herself out and found her friend trying – and failing – to calm the pinkette down. The chill of nighttime made her mood even more foul as she stomped over, wondering what the heck was so important that it required that level of loudness.

"What's going on?" she snapped as she started wringing out her hair.

"I-It's Sasuke-kun!" the pinkette wailed. "I told him not to go back out training tonight, but he just wouldn't listen! He and Naruto were running up the trees when-when suddenly he just fell! I thought he would land on his feet as always, but…but it was like he passed out! Now he won't move, or wake up, and I can barely feel his chakra! Kakashi-sensei…if he isn't here…"

"Sounds like he suffered from chakra exhaustion. It's happened to us before." Ilki frowned when she saw her friend's troubled expression. "Whatcha thinking, Mirani?"

"How high was he when he fell?" she asked her sobbing teammate.

Sakura cringed. "I don't know…he was past the third or fourth branch, I guess. Pretty close to the top."

"Then chakra exhaustion is the least of our worries." She rubbed her temples, trying to remember what she had learned in her Human Biology class she had been taking in her senior year. While the class focused mainly on anatomy and physiology, occasionally the textbook brought up homeostatic imbalance – or what could go wrong with certain parts of the body. While not providing treatment or care options, some knowledge was better than none. "A fall from that height could mean broken bones, sprains, dislocations, concussions…and that could lead to a cerebral edema…" At their confused looks, she clarified. "It's when the brain swells, and it compresses vital tissue."

"You…how do you…" The pinkette gaped. "They don't teach anything iryō-nin related in the Academy except how to bind wounds…"

"I took a class before I came to Konoha," she said absentmindedly. "Kakashi-sensei might be back at the house. We need to hurry…jōnin should know more about medical ninjutsu."

Her friend nodded. "I'll go look."

"Will you come check on him, Mirani?" Sakura started to shake again.

"I don't know how to heal," she said, shaking her head. "I just know the terminology and what could happen. Treatments…not so much."

"Please…please help Sasuke-kun!"

She sighed in resignation as the girl's voice rose several octaves. Her teammate took the opportunity to grab her hand and drag her towards the other clearing. An unconscious Uchiha lay on the ground on his back, and Naruto was crouched down next to him with an almost-gloating expression. 'Probably doesn't understand the gravity of the situation,' she thought as she eyed him. 'And he probably thinks that the emo prince is weaker than he is…he's never gonna let this one go…' She almost groaned at the thought of the headaches that would create.

"Is this how he landed?" she asked, turning back to Sakura. At her nod, she frowned. "Less chance of a broken limb, but a higher chance of a concussion."

Naruto opened his mouth to, presumably, ask a question, but she shushed him with a wave of her hand. She had taken a health class in her junior year, learning first aid, but had not paid much attention. 'Not that it would help…unless he needs CPR, and I'd let Sakura do that one,' she thought with a cringe. 'First aid only taught us how to handle situations where someone passes out because of a heart-attack, or choking, or something like that. Most important thing I can even use from that class is how to remain calm and check his vitals… Why did I have to be in a class with all my slacker friends?'

Her frown deepened, and she knelt next to the Uchiha. 'At least there's no blood,' she thought. While at first, it looked like he was not breathing, she discovered when she lowered her head and turned it slightly – so that she could see if his was chest was rising while hearing if he was breathing – that he was, albeit they were very shallow breaths. The air tickled her ear, and she jerked away quickly – it felt weird, and oddly reminded her of her ex-boyfriends on Earth when they whispered to her. 'And that's a bad association to make with the emo prince,' she thought, resisting the urge to twitch in irritation.

"Is everything all right?" Sakura asked, her voice quivering.

"He's breathing." She placed her first two fingers under his jawbone, below the ear to check his pulse. It was weak, and without a watch, she could not calculate it properly. However, she found that in the few seconds she had held her fingers there, it was steadily increasing. "If his pulse is any indication, he should wake up soon."

The Uchiha, if she remembered correctly, had a fast recovery rate, even at this age. As if to prove her point, his eyelids flickered before fully opening. He had a dazed look at first, but then seemed to realize where he was and what had happened.

"Sasuke-kun, you're -!"

Mirani silenced her with a glare, putting a finger to her lips in a 'quiet down' fashion. She glanced at the blond, silently telling him not to try talking either. Her attention was brought back to the emo prince, however, when he tried to sit up.

"Not so fast," she said as quietly as she could, placing a firm but gentle hand on his shoulder. "That was a hard fall, and you could have a concussion."

"Hn." All he did was glower at her.

"Can you move your arms and legs?" she asked, and he demonstrated that he could. "Anything hurt?" The question was not answered – males and their pride.

"I'm fine," was all he said as he tried to sit up again.

"That may be the case, but people with concussions tend to think they're fine at first." She crossed her arms. "If you start to feel weird, you have to say something. It could mean brain damage."

Just after she finished speaking, Ilki walked into the clearing with Kakashi hobbling behind her on one crutch. Considering he was temporarily crippled, they had made good time from the house to the practice area. The sensei hobbled over to them, giving Sasuke a good once-over.

"She's right. You're going to need some rest."

"I don't have time for that." He tried to walk, and faltered.

"It wasn't a suggestion." Their sensei looked at all of them. "Everyone should head back."

The Uchiha glared at the authoress for her help, and she figured he was irritated that she halted his training. With a glare of her own, she said, "Hey, brain damage won't help you to fulfill your 'ambitions'."

–

Digging up her knowledge she had rather easily pushed aside in the few months she had been in the Naruto world had been for nothing, Mirani learned. The Uchiha had, as she predicted, recovered fast – within the night – and did not have any serious damage. He had even resumed training with Naruto, and two days later, they had finally mastered tree climbing. 'Which brings me back to water walking,' she thought with a frown as she glared at the dinner in front of her. 'I never want to work on that again. Seven days of practicing it, and I barely have it down.'

Her glaring contest with her food was interrupted when the front door was slammed open, and the emo prince dragged their blond teammate through the door. Both were rather beat up, and Naruto looked as if he could not move his body at all.

"You guys are finally back," Tazuna said, looking up from his own food. "You both look super dirty and worn out."

The blond laughed. "Both of us made it to the top!"

"Good." Kakashi set down his chopsticks. "Starting tomorrow, we will all be going to the bridge to help protect Tazuna-san, instead of the shifts we've been taking."

This made Inari launch into another tirade of how they would all die, like his father did when he tried to stand up to Gatou. Naruto proceeded to yell right back at him, and the younger boy ran out of the house. After he finished eating, Kakashi went out to talk to him for a bit while the others prepared for bed.

In the room that the three girls shared, Mirani was reading one of her jutsu scrolls when Ilki plopped down on the bedroll next to her. Their other female teammate was already fast asleep, and judging by her snores, she would not wake up if the two talked.

"Zabuza shows up tomorrow, doesn't he?" the Jinchūriki asked quietly.

"If the outline kept that straight, then yes," she replied without glancing up. "What of it?"

"I'm worried." She bit her lip. "About Takeo. We never did get a chance to work with my control."

"Sorry." Looking up from her scroll, she rubbed the back of her neck. "That's my fault…I should have picked up on water walking faster. For all the control I have with jutsu, I can't seem to master the simplest tasks. It doesn't make sense."

"You've always been a perfectionist. In my psychology class, we learned once that perfectionists over think simpler tasks."

"…you _learned_ something?"

Ilki glowered. "_Anyways_, Takeo…"

"Last time Kakashi-sensei inadvertently stopped it with his Sharingan and a well-timed genjutsu, but I don't think he'll have the time to do it again," the authoress said with a frown. "Drawing on the power of the Nibi would be helpful, but if you don't think you can control it, you can't. We can't have you on a killing rampage, killing friend and foe alike."

"I haven't been able to contact that Nibi since the first time. I…can't seem to find the focus." She paused, and looked at her lap. "To be honest, I think I'm afraid. I don't wanna feel like I did."

"Then let's fight him together," her friend said, smiling. "If you start going all psycho-killer on me, I'll try to stop you."

"Do you honestly think you can stop me?" she asked, looking back up.

"I will try my hardest."

Despite her reassurances, though, Mirani could tell that her friend was still unsure. By the time she finally curled up in her bedroll to sleep, she saw her still staring off into space, wide-awake. 'Hang in there, Ilki,' she thought sleepily, before drifting off.

–

"W-What is this?"

The bridge-builder's tone did not help the situation that team seven had walked in. For a moment, Ilki was glad that they had not brought Naruto along – his reaction would have only made the situation worse. Around them on the bridge lay dead bodies, the pavement red from their blood. Her vision blurred for a moment, but she suppressed the memories that wanted to resurface.

"Here they come!"

Kakashi's warning did not come as a surprise as mist began to roll in, the Kirigakure no Jutsu. They assumed defensive positions around Tazuna instantly, and she noticed out of the corner of her eye that Sasuke was shaking. 'I missed the whole Zabuza fight,' she thought, narrowing her eyes. 'I wonder if everything went how it was supposed to…and how this battle will go.'

"Long time no see, Kakashi," a voice said from the mist, a voice she recognized as Zabuza. "I see you're still with those brats. He's shaking again, poor kid."

The moment a bunch of clones appeared, Sasuke smirked. "I'm shaking from excitement."

At his sensei's nod, he obliterated them. The mist cleared for just a moment, revealing Zabuza, the hunter-nin that was Haku, and finally, the redhead that was Takeo. A growl escaped her lips, and he smirked at her before beckoning at her with a _get-over-here _motion.

"Ilki, wait!"

But she had leapt forward, wanting to end this quickly. 'Before the cat comes out for more,' she thought, her happy side quickly gone. Killer intent washed over her from the shinobi, but what once affected her only made her angry. _Use it_, the Nibi whispered in the back of her mind, snaking into her train of thought like smoke.

"You're not going to fight this alone," Mirani whispered, appearing next to her and breaking her concentration.

"This is my fight," she hissed, not looking at her.

Lowering her voice to the point that she could barely hear her, her friend said, "It's my fault we're here, and that you're feeling like this. Let me help."

Some strange sense of calm washed over her, and she pushed the Nibi back down to its cage. Turning to look at her friend, she smiled, and for a moment, was her normal, chipper self. However, the distraction was an opening for Takeo – she heard the whisper of wind, and suddenly, she felt a strange sensation in her arm. Looking down, she saw a kunai embedded in her skin, warm blood trickling down and catching in the lines of her fishnet.

"_Get away from her_!" her friend growled, slamming into him and pushing him away.

Never had she been stabbed, and the sensation was odd. She had always thought it would be painful, but instead it just felt cold. It stung slightly, but the adrenaline rushing through her body had dulled anything else. With a confused look, she wiped at the cut and found her hand covered in blood. She stared at it, barely hearing the battle going on around her.

"Taiyoukei Hakkei: Taiyou!"

Fire burned around her in the form of a large fireball, sizzling as it hit the mist and slowly fizzing out. From somewhere in the mist, she heard Takeo's laugh, punctuated by the clang of metal.

"Silly child, water negates fire. You'd learn that if you had been in more battles, but I think this will be your last."

There was another growl. "Taiyoukei Hakkei: Chikyuu!"

Around her, the mist thickened, becoming more like floating raindrops. Condensation appeared on her skin as the air became humid, and she watched as the drops became red with her blood. She could not move, could not think clearly, instead mesmerized by her first true injury.

"Taiyoukei Hakkei: Kaiousei!"

The air drops solidified into ice as a cold, whipping wind blew around her. With the wind, they shaped into needle-like structures, which then converged on a single location. _Clang_, _cling_, _swish_.

"You'll pay for those lucky shots, brat. Suiton: Suishū Gorugon!"

"Taiyoukei Hakkei: Dosei!"

Her friend skidded by her, surrounded by rings and the bubble-like protection that her Kaiousei had. Pressing against the protective bubble was a snake made out of water, attempting to squeeze her.

"T-Taiyouk-kei Hakk-kei: Kinsei!"

Somewhere in that mist, Mirani was panting from exertion. A stream of thick, greenish air flew by her, clouding around a slowly approaching figure. The figure, Takeo, started coughing, before dashing out of the cloud and past Ilki. For a moment, the mist receded enough so that she could see the redhead holding her friend's head, a kunai against her throat.

"Letting other people fight your battles will get you nowhere, child," he said with a smirk at her.

The kunai pressed deeper into her friend's skin, and she saw a small trickle of blood travel down her neck. Something inside her snapped, and her wound was forgotten. A growl escaped her lips, and the Nibi's voice started to whisper death and destruction in her ear.

"Let her go," she hissed, shifting into a pouncing position.

"Ilki, don't –" Her friend's voice was cut off with a strangled sound.

"Or what?" He laughed, a maniacal laugh that resonated with evil. "You must not want to see another person murdered in front of your eyes…" Smirking, he pressed the kunai deeper again. "She must be close to you to protect you with the ferocity she did. Reminds me of your parents, and how they fought for you…"

"_Shut up_!"

"They fought so valiantly for you to grow up like a normal person. But all those arguments did nothing to the ruling council…they all wanted you to be trained as a weapon to gain power to our rather small village. Ever since the bijū was sealed inside of you, when some of our most powerful shinobi stumbled across it, you were the cause of the council's problems. If your parents had merely given you over, maybe Aneigakure would still be around…"

"_I'll kill you_!"

Everything became red again, like the first time she attacked him. Time seemed to slow down as she fell on all fours, howling with a ferocity that did not belong to a human. She let her mind be taken over by the gleeful cat, and watched as she pounced on the redhead. He had pushed her friend to the ground, that battle forgotten as he went after his true goal, which she realized was her.

With every paw swipe, his dodging got slower and slower. Mirani's battle with him had weakened him slightly, enough that his responses were not the best. At one point, she managed to actually nail him across the abdomen, and blood went flying. It splattered across her face, sizzling as it met the chakra that surrounded her and giving off a metallic-smelling smoke. The cat inside her howled in glee as she pounced on the man, who had fallen from having most of his midsection torn out.

Blood covered her hands – there was so much of it that it had seeped through the chakra coat around her. The warm fluid stained the pavement under a barely recognizable body. Bones crunched under her hands and feet as she circled what was left, and she let out a chilling yowl.

"Ilki, stop!"

Her friend's voice barely made it through the red haze in her eyes – to her, it sounded like someone else was challenging her. She spun around, eying the girl approaching her with her hands up. A hiss bubbled up from her throat, and she tensed, preparing to pounce.

"I'm your friend," she said quietly, soothingly. "It's over; he's dead. You don't need to attack anyone else."

Growling, she pounced. Killing felt so _good_, and that girl would not stop her. She managed to dodge – mostly. Ilki's paw grazed her arm, and she let out a cry of pain as her skin was burned. The cry managed to cut through the haze, and directly hit the part of her mind that was still sane. 'I _burned _my _best friend_,' she realized, and the killer intent she felt dissipated instantly. The chakra coating disappeared, and suddenly, her vision became speckled with black spots. She barely heard herself murmur an apology before she fainted from exhaustion.

* * *

**Glossary: **(This is a long one.)

_General:_

Iryō-nin: Medic-nin.

_Zabuza's Jutsu:_

Kirigakure no Jutsu – literally "Art of Hiding in the Mist", but considered "Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu."

_Mirani's Jutsu:_

Taiyoukei Hakkei: Taiyou – Solar System Release: Sun. Inspiration from NASA: "he sun is a star, a hot ball of glowing gases at the heart of our solar system."

-Chikyuu: Earth. Inspiration from NASA: "Earth is an ocean planet."

-Dosei: Saturn. Inspiration from NASA: "Adorned with thousands of beautiful ringlets, Saturn is unique among the planets."

-Kinsei: Venus. Inspiration from NASA: "Similar in structure and size to Earth, Venus' thick, toxic atmosphere traps heat in a runaway 'greenhouse effect.'"

_Takeo's Jutsu:_

Suiton: Suishū Gorugon – Water Release: Powerful Blasting Rain Trench.

_Review please! :)_


	12. Aftermath

A/N: You asked for romance, so I give you the irony of CPR. Enjoy!

If there are errors in this chapter, I apologize. My typical checker for consistency and what not had plans today and could not check. If this chapter does not seem to fit in with everything else, just let me know. I can rewrite it. :)

Thank you my wonderful reviewers, and welcome new readers! Special thanks to Riss737 for telling me to put reactions in - that had totally escaped my mind!

**Disclaimer/Claimer:** I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own the characters Mirani and Ilki, as they have previously been copyrighted to me by a friend who borrowed them for her privately published book. So yay, I own something!

Glossary at end of the chappie.

* * *

There was already so much blood that the air itself only smelled like metal. Gone was the hint of the salty tang of the sea. Mirani knew that elsewhere, more blood had been shed. As the mist lifted, she could see that Haku was dead, and Zabuza was nearing death. Gatō and his hired mercenaries were nearby, too.

Her attention was abruptly shifted to the gash on her arm. The adrenaline rush in her system was disappearing, replacing her energy with exhaustion and pain – so much pain. Ilki had only grazed her, but the chakra coating had burned away at least the first layer of her skin. Blood poured from her upper arm, soaking the sleeve of her jacket.

From somewhere inside her brain, her survival instincts woke up and kicked in. Every piece of information she had picked up from her life's travels ran to the forefront of her mind, melding together with what she had picked up from the Academy. She quickly peeled off her jacket, using her teeth and other hand to tie it tightly over the wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Her jacket soaked up the blood rather fast, and she held her arm above her head to slow the flow of blood. It was hard, for her injured arm was becoming limp.

Ilki was curled up nearby, presumably unconscious, considering she could see her breathing. She too was covered in blood, but most of it was not hers. Most of it was Takeo's, whose mauled body was spread out around and beneath her. Mirani struggled to resist the urge to vomit – she had never seen carnage in real life before, and the fact that the people in the Naruto world could do this on a regular basis revolted her. Turning away, she saw Naruto gesturing wildly at Zabuza, and even though she could not hear the words, she knew the battle was almost over. Sasuke would be waking up soon, and Gatō was about to die…

The Kiri-nin that was Zabuza launched himself into Gatō's group of mercenaries, but went straight for the fat man in the black suit. She turned away as blood started spurting everywhere, sick and tired of seeing the red fluid. Her gaze fell upon a weeping Sakura and "dead" Sasuke, with Tazuna standing behind the pinkette. The Uchiha was only starting to wake up when his teammate glomped him. Shaking her head, she was about to check her arm again when something strange happened.

Mirani knew the Nami no Kuni arc like the back of her hand. They were the first few episodes she had watched when she was just getting into the show, before she went back and watched the beginning episodes. It was those episodes that got her into the manga, made her watch subbed pirated Japanese shows, and turned her into a fan. She knew the arc with the precision of a perfectionist. So when Sasuke went unconscious in Sakura's arms, she knew something was up.

He was supposed to be all right – hurt, but not enough that he could not stand and hobble back to Tazuna's house. With a frown, she struggled to stand before walking over to the sobbing Sakura. 'What has my outline done now?' she wondered with irritation. As she walked over, she watched with the smallest tinge of amusement as the pinkette copied her from a few days before, listening and watching for her obsession's breaths. The amusement, however mistimed, faded instantly when the girl only started to cry more. She was attempting to find a pulse when Mirani finally managed to get over to her, leaving a trail of blood in her wake.

"What happened?" she asked, startling them.

"I-I don't know!" Sakura wailed, falling onto the boy's chest with a sob. "He…he was supposed to be dead! B-But then he woke up, and now…"

She frowned, an expression that was going to soon become permanent on her face. The Uchiha looked different, somehow, and with a start she realized that some of the needles had sunken deeper into him. 'Haku was a good-guy shinobi, though,' she thought, even if she was using the term "good-guy" in its loosest meaning. 'He must have suffered extra trauma. But from what…?' Glancing at Sakura, she realized with a start that the girl had little dark red dots forming on her pink dress. Realization dawned on her. 'Dear god, help me. She might have just killed the Uchiha with a fan girl glomp.' The situation was so ironic that she wanted to laugh, but the gravity of the situation hit her first. In front of her was a boy whose life was in jeopardy – it was not a laughing matter.

"He's not breathing, ne?" At the pinkette's nod, she asked, "What about a pulse?"

She burst into more tears. "I-I couldn't find one!"

The air inside of Mirani left her, and her words about CPR from the earlier medical emergency rang in her ears. "Sakura…please tell me they taught CPR in the Academy before Ilki and I showed up."

"I d-don't know what t-that is," she said as she wiped away her tears.

'I hate karma and any higher power that's laughing at me right now,' she thought, resisting the urge to twitch in irritation. Adrenaline found its way back into her system, and the pain in her arm dulled. With her arm a little less limp, she knew she could attempt the procedure. Using the ribs as her guideline, she found the spot her health teacher had stressed a year ago and began the compressions, counting silently in her head. When she hit thirty, she stopped, ignoring the pain in her now-profusely bleeding arm. Tilting his head back and pinching shut his nose, she breathed into his mouth twice – much to her teammate's surprise. Before the girl could protest, she was already doing the compressions again.

"Your arm…" Tazuna almost whispered from behind her.

Her blood had begun to stream down her arm, enough that she was starting to get the Uchiha's shirt soaked. Nevertheless, she continued the compressions and breaths, all the while repeating the same few thoughts in her head: 'CPR does not have a high chance to restart the heart, but there isn't exactly a defibrillator around, even if they had one. Come on, Sasuke, beat the odds.' He could not die here – the impact of that on the series would be devastating.

It had only been perhaps a minute or two before the Uchiha answered her thoughts and started coughing, a sign of response. "Thank kami-sama."

She sighed in relief as he opened his eyes, surprise evident at seeing her hovering over him. The relief did not last long as she started to see spots, and suddenly felt rather faint from blood loss. She felt herself fall sideways, hitting the pavement. 'I am _never_ becoming an iryō-nin…I'm leaving this stuff to Sakura from now on.'

–

The wall was a very boring object to wake up to. Mirani thought the brownish color that had been painted over the wood was quite bland, and the whole wall would have been horrible if there had not been a picture on it. Picture was the wrong word, she realized – it was more of a framed saying. _Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau_, it read. _ Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice inside the ceiling laugh, _she realized, but then frowned. The hiragana and kanji had not translated into English, but she could read them. She knew what they meant by reading them – her studying had started to pay off. 'I wonder when Ilki will start to be able to read Japanese,' she thought idly as she studied the saying. 'Who knows how long this translating thing that the outline "deemed us worthy to have" will last.'

It was a strange thing to wake up to, especially when her last memory was of reviving the Uchiha on a bridge soaked in blood. Turning in her bedroll, she rolled over on her left arm – and resisted the urge to shout in pain. 'Stupid arm,' she grumbled as she rolled off it, and then glared at it. It had been bandaged, and the bleeding seemed to have stopped. She could move her fingers without her arm feeling too unresponsive. Using her other arm, she tried to sit up – and promptly saw stars before falling back down. Her chakra might have helped her recover consciousness faster, but depending on how long she had been without food or water, that would not help very much. Someone squeaked in the room, and she heard rustling as that person moved over to her.

"Are you all right, Mirani?" Sakura asked, looking down at her with worry.

"Do you have any food?" Her mouth was insanely dry, and her words came out more like a croaking frog trying to speak coherently. "And some water…"

A few minutes after the pinkette left, she reappeared with a tray of food that she set down next to her. She struggled to sit up, but finally managed to do so without falling back down. Eating slowly, so as not to overload her body, she found that after a bit, she was starting to feel better. While she had lost a great deal of blood, the sugar was helping her not feel so light-headed.

"Sakura, are you okay?" she asked as she set her empty glass down.

She nodded slowly. "I'm just tired. It's been a long night… Do you need more water?"

"I can get it." She struggled to stand, using the boring wall to steady herself. "You need sleep."

"Are…are you sure?" The pinkette punctuated her question with a yawn.

"I'll be fine," she replied with a shrug, then resisted the urge to wince in pain. "Ya know, you have good bedside manners…maybe you're the one who should consider being an iryō-nin."

Her teammate smiled as she curled up in her bedroll, and she quickly fell asleep. She murmured something that sounded like a "thank you" for something; Mirani could not understand the rest of it. Shrugging, and wincing again, she used the wall for support, slowly making her way out of the room and down the hall. She was almost to the kitchen when she passed by the boys' room.

"Sakura-chan…water…"

Naruto's voice floated out of the room, and she paused. Poking her head inside, she saw that the blond was actually asleep, and sleep talking. Her gaze traveled to Kakashi, who had cracked open his eye. She gave him a smile and a wave, glad to see someone else was recovering.

"I'm going to the kitchen – do you need anything?" she asked quietly.

"Actually, water would be nice," he said with an eye smile.

She nodded, and looked around to see if Sasuke was awake and wanted anything. With a start – and yet another twinge of pain – she realized his bedroll was empty. "Is he…?"

"He's fine, recovering quickly. I believe he's in the kitchen, eating."

She sighed in relief. 'I suppose Sakura would have been more distraught,' she realized as she walked into the kitchen. 'Probably what she was thanking me for, too. I swear, if I had done CPR for nothing, someone would have been killed.' The thought made her stop suddenly in her tracks, and she backpedaled through her train of thought. After all she had been through on the mission, the last thing she wanted to do was kill again. There had been so much blood… Of course, she had seen blood on TV on Earth. She was an avid fan of the CSI shows, and loved them almost as much she loved anime and manga. But seeing the carnage firsthand was so different, so vivid…so frightening. Not to mention the fear that came with almost being killed… A hand went to her neck, and she remembered the fear she felt when Takeo's kunai had cut her.

From somewhere in the kitchen, she heard a 'hn'; when she turned around, she saw the Uchiha watching her with a slightly amused expression. It was then that she realized she had been staring at the sink for a few minutes without moving. She cracked a smile before using her good hand to grab a glass and put it in the sink. Using the same hand, she turned on the faucet and let the water fill the glass.

"Sakura and Kakashi-sensei told me you saved my life," he said suddenly.

'After Sakura almost killed you,' she thought, hiding her grin. "Mhm."

"…thank you."

She blinked and turned slightly in surprise. "You're welcome."

There was silence as she turned the water off. She had picked up the cup and was about to bring it to Kakashi when her teammate spoke again.

"You're strong."

She almost dropped the glass in surprise, and was about to ask if he was feeling okay – the emo prince _never_ complimented anyone.

"Train me in that style you use," he continued before she could say anything. "I want you to help me fulfill my ambitions."

Her sanity returned, and she resisted a sigh of relief. 'Of course, he is only nice when he wants something…nice being used in its loosest meaning.'

"That sounds like a demand." She almost crossed her arms, but the glass of water in her hand and a spasm of pain kept her from doing so. Instead, she settled with a tirade that would sate her irritation at being used. "You expect everything to be handed to you on a silver platter, ne? I'm not one of your fan girls, who bends over backwards to do your wish. Besides, Naruto and Ilki are stronger than I am – Naruto has a lot of chakra, and so does Ilki. Why not ask them?"

"The dobe is annoying, as is Ilki." He glared at her. "You use a ninjutsu style that has potential, and power I can use."

She bit back a retort, startled that he legitimately wanted her help. To help him further his ambitions, quite honestly, scared her. He was hell-bent on them, and heaven forbid she slowed him down – training or not. Sure, she _could_ teach him; she would probably become more powerful in the process, too. But to take part in shaping what he would become…

"_Please_," he ground out in irritation, interrupting her thoughts. It seemed he had taken her hesitation as her being high-and-mighty.

"I…have to get this water to Kakashi-sensei," she said, shifting her feet.

His scowl followed her as she left the kitchen, but she was too into her scrambled thoughts to notice or care. Between the shock of the question and the repercussions her actions could have, she was starting to get a headache. 'Like I need more pain,' she thought as she walked into the boys' room. 'Stupid arm.' Walking over to Kakashi, she helped him sit up – the large wound that went from shoulder to hip looked _painful_ – and handed him the cup in his uninjured hand.

"You know…" He looked at her over his glass. "You should help Sasuke."

"You _heard_?" She blinked in surprise – that was some hearing.

"If you help him, you may be able to get closer to him than even Naruto," he said. "You may be able to help him in more ways than just training, perhaps make him into a better person. He hasn't had a normal life."

'I don't think I can save him,' she thought as she walked out of the room. 'My outline won't take that much artistic license.' Finding herself in the kitchen, she sighed. 'But Kakashi is right…if I can get close to him, maybe, just _maybe_, I can change a few things for the better.'

"All right, Sasuke. I'll help you with your ambitions."

–

Sunlight blinded her eyes the moment Ilki opened them. She growled, and someone in the room squeaked in fear. Rubbing her eyes, she turned so she was not facing the light and saw Sakura watching her with wide eyes. For a moment, she was confused, until she realized what had happened the last time she was conscious. She blinked and looked down, but she was not covered in the blood she expected. Instead, she was squeaky clean, leaving her to wonder why her teammate was so frightened.

"It's all right, Sakura," she said, smiling. It would not do her good to have her team scared of her.

"H-Hai…but…"

Her eyes were still wide but she could not seem to form words; the Jinchūriki inwardly shrugged. 'She'll get used to me eventually,' she thought, giving up comforting her as quickly as the thought entered her mind. 'Girl is practically a scared-y cat for the next four years.' Of course, she knew they had seen the carnage and felt the killer intent from her – it made perfect sense for them to be scared. 'But they don't have to stare at me like I'm a freak…even if I am, it doesn't mean I'm not a human being.'

After a moment, she tried to stand up – and promptly fell flat on her face. Pain hit her like a brick wall, and she resisted the urge to scream bloody murder. Her body _hurt_, more so than it did the first time she transformed. It felt as if every fiber of her being had been put cut up and puréed. At her hiss of pain, the pinkette squeaked again and ran out of the room.

At first, she thought the girl was a coward, and wallowed in irritation along with pain. But contrary to her thoughts, her teammate returned with Mirani in tow. Seeing her, her friend paled before kneeling next to her. She reached her hand out and touched her head, and she winced. Just the touch was painful. Her friend patted something on her head, her ears she realized, and they twitched. 'Wait…did they just twitch?'

Despite the pain it brought her, she reached up and touched her head, her ears…ears that were triangular, fluffy, and on the top of her head.

"_What_?"

Her friend winced and Sakura cowered, and a few seconds later, she heard footsteps walking down the hall. A bandaged-up Kakashi poked his head in and eyed the cat ears. Walking inside, he sighed and knelt next to Mirani. He studied them for a moment, then shook his head. It appeared he was not scared of her, just worried.

"It looks like whatever seal the people used on the bijū isn't very strong," he finally said. "Its chakra is leaking out and changing you."

–

"Naruto…are you afraid of me?"

The blond looked up from his lunch with a startled expression. Ilki was sitting across from him, staring intently at her own meal. It was just the two of them, eating on Tazuna's house's steps. They had been people-watching while eating, along with discussing ramen and how they missed it. She had not wanted to bring up the subject of what had happened on the bridge with him, and he had seemed willing to oblige. While Sakura was scared, Mirani was…herself, Kakashi was concerned, and Sasuke was uncaring, Naruto had yet to show any emotion to her whatsoever. He treated her like he used to before the whole mission.

"Well…" He scratched the back of his head and grinned his silly grin. "It was kinda scary. But you were just trying to protect Mirani, ne? She said you went all crazy when that weird guy cut up her arm and her neck. I think that's pretty cool, protecting the ones close to you, dattebayo!"

She blinked; she did not know that her friend had not told them it was she who injured her. "I was crazy, though. Like, when we first faced the Zabuza and Takeo, I flipped out on him. And I wasn't protecting Mirani."

"I thought you were protecting all of us," he said, tilting his head to the side with a confused look on his face. "They were beating us up pretty bad until you woke up and distracted…Tako, Take, umm…Takeo?"

"Well…I'm glad you're still my friend." She offered him a lopsided grin, absentmindedly tugging on her hitae-ite. The day before, when she had woken up, she had retied the band in her hair to hide her cat ears. "I thought I was scary, and had scared you all."

He sobered suddenly, and returned to staring at his lunch. "Ano…I can be really scary too. When that Haku guy made me think he killed Sasuke-teme…I kinda went crazy on him. It was weird, and I think I scared Sakura-chan and Kakashi-sensei, too. When I broke through Haku's jutsu, Kakashi-sensei was watching me with this really strange face…"

He poked at his food for a bit, his uncharacteristic quietness was starting to get to her. She switched the topic then, blathering on about how they had to get Ichiraku ramen when they went home in celebration of the completion of their first C-rank mission. It was painfully obvious to her that he did not want to talk about his brush with the Kyūbi, especially since she was not supposed to know about it.

A few hours later, after she had finished her lunch and random conversation, she was wandering the streets of the town looking for something to do. Kakashi had not really given them any duties, since most of them were still injured; at the most they were supposed to keep the peace if they saw anything bad. She was feeling better, her discussion with her fellow Jinchūriki (even if he did not know it yet) brightening her mood. It would not be long until she was her happy, blissfully ignorant self. 'Ahh, the wonders of easy D-rank missions, and the peacefulness of Konoha…' she thought as she stared into the sky.

Peacefulness did not seem to like her that day, however, as while she was walking, she heard someone scream. Nobody around her noticed it, and she was confused. 'I know I heard it…' she thought, and her ears twitched under her hitae-ite. It then dawned upon her that with cat ears, she had much better hearing than normal people did. 'Oh…the things I can do with this…'

She sobered quickly as she heard the scream again, and used her senses to head in that direction. After a bit, she reached a rundown part of the town that was filled with dark alleys and questionable corners. The screams were coming from one of the dark alleys, she realized, and she hid in the shadows of it. She could just barely make out a group of people, with one of them pinned to the wall by sand.

Blinking twice, she then gaped – she only knew of one person that used sand in the Naruto world: another fellow Jinchūriki, Sabaku no Gaara. That meant that the two people standing side by side of him were his siblings, Kankurō and Temari. 'But…what are they doing here?' she wondered, cocking her head to the side. 'They've never appeared here in the series.'

Unfortunately, her pondering proved to be enough of a distraction for her that she did not notice sand snaking towards her until she was yanked from the shadows. Hanging upside down next to the other person, she scowled at the redhead. 'Curse me and my forgetfulness…shoulda masked my chakra…' She felt the blood rushing to her head, and she winced. While the pain had ebbed since she had woken up, this was definitely not on her "recommended things to do while injured" list. It _hurt_.

"Perhaps you will have more information than this one," Gaara said in his monotone voice. "Where is Gatō?"

"Dead." The sand tightened around her, and she winced. Somewhere inside her mind, she could feel the Nibi waking up – probably smelling the Ichibi no Shukaku. "One of his mercenaries killed him, Momochi Zabuza. I was on the bridge where the battle took place." They did not need to know she was unconscious by that point.

"That's what I've been saying!" the other person wailed, struggling against the sand. "But he won't listen to me!"

The male sibling, Kankurō, sighed. "There goes our mission."

"I still want to kill." The redhead's monotone voice, now tinged with bloodlust, made Ilki wonder if that is what she had sounded like before. "Sabaku Kyū."

"Wait…Gaara…!" Temari, the female sibling, almost tried to stop him, but it seemed she thought better of stopping her psychotic younger brother.

The man next to her started to scream, but the sand that encased him muffled his screams. Blood sprayed her, and she resisted the urge to wince. Fear, she knew, was a bad thing to show in front of him, as that only fueled his want for death. His eyes turned from the man to her, and sand began to envelop her.

"Killing me would be a bad idea," she said, eying the sand with her spotty vision. Hanging upside down was not doing anything productive. "I'm a Konoha nin, one of your allies – judging from your hitae-ites, you're Suna nin."

There was a poof, and a man with part of his face covered appeared. "This is not a good idea. Let her go, Gaara."

She recognized the man from his few appearances: the Sand Siblings' sensei, Baki. Gaara, to her, seemed reluctant to let another prospective victim go. It took a tension-filled minute before he released her, letting her fall to the floor. Some instinct kicked in, one she blamed on the cat inside her, and she landed on all fours. The cat, fully awakened at the presence of the Ichibi, hissed; the hiss came from her mouth, and she watched as the the Suna nin's eyes widened, minus Gaara. To them, the hiss sounded like a taunt.

"_Stay away from my kitten, Shukaku_," a low voice growled, coming from her mouth.

Mentally yelling at the cat to shut up, she slapped a hand over her mouth and backed away. They did not chase her, but the redhead watched her with new interest as she left – interest that held bloodlust. 'That...could be bad...' she thought as she quickly left the shadier side of town. 'Things are going to get interesting when the Chūnin Exams roll around.' As she walked, she noticed the townsfolk were giving her odd looks. It was then that it dawned upon her that she was still covered in blood. Mentally cursing the cat again, she found one of the docks and jumped in the sea. Nothing good would come of her reappearing at Tazuna's house covered in blood.

* * *

**Glossary:**

_General:_

Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. – Loosely translates into the saying: Nobody knows what tomorrow might bring.

_Gaara's Jutsu:_

Sabaku Kyū – Sand Binding Coffin.

_Review please! Virtual cookies to those who can guess the secret meaning of this chapter that will be revealed soon! :)_


	13. All the Stars in the Sky

**IMPORTANT:** I rewrote this chapter after a discussion with the AAC committee. Yes, we have a committee...strange, I know. Anyways, after the discussion, we realized that not only did we flood you readers with a bunch of information, but we were also keeping Mary-Sue Mirani's past. Things have changed, so please ignore everything you read in the previous chapter thirteen. That whole chapter o' information will not only show up later in a different form, but it will have different information and will be revealed differently. It'll all come later...

**ALSO IMPORTANT**: Previously, I was calling Mirani's style "Hoshihoshiton". There was a translating error on my part; it should be "Hoshi**b**oshi(ton)".

**Lastly**: Due to midterms this coming week, I cannot promise my typical two chapters. Cramming to write a chapter results in confusion and...badly written/thought-out stuff.

If you readers are displeased with this chapter again, please let me know what I can do to fix it. Thanks! :)

**Disclaimer/Claimer:** I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own the characters Mirani and Ilki, as they have previously been copyrighted to me by a friend who borrowed them for her privately published book. So yay, I own something!

Glossary at end of the chappie.

* * *

There was a cool breeze rustling the leaves the day team seven arrived back in Konoha. 'Being back home feels nice,' Ilki thought as she stared at the gates of the village. 'But I worry about what the Hokage will say about my status as a Jinchūriki…' Shaking her head, she turned back to Naruto and his ramen related conversation. It was much easier to pay attention to such lighthearted talk.

Almost as soon as they entered the village, her blond friend declared that they all had to go to Ichiraku ramen for celebratory ramen. She was all for it, until Kakashi snapped his book shut and turned to her. Almost instantly, her happiness faded; she knew what was going to happen.

"I'm sorry, Ilki, but we need to visit Hokage-sama," he said.

Mirani shot her a sympathetic look, and she slowly followed their sensei to the office of Sarutobi Hiruzen. The walk was silent, and they were quickly let in to see the old man when they arrived. When they entered the office, the Hokage looked up from his mountains of paperwork with a curious look.

"Welcome back, Kakashi." His eyes flicked between the two of them. "What brings you two to my office?"

"We made a discovery in the Nami no Kuni," her sensei said, and then gave her a pointed look.

With a sigh, she stepped forward. "It seems I have the Nibi no Bakeneko inside me…"

–

Normally, Mirani liked her ramen. She typically found it funny when Naruto managed to drag all of them to Ichiraku, where he and Sasuke would inevitably get into a rather one-sided argument (Sasuke liked to simply 'hn'). With Ilki at the Hokage's office, however, she was too worried to eat the steaming noodles in front of her. Even though the Hokage was a nice person, viewed almost like a grandfather by most, she still wondered if that could change with her friend's revelation. 'Or maybe I just have trust issues,' she thought, poking at her food with her chopsticks.

By the time she finished eating, the hyperactive blond was already on his eighth bowl. She shook her head at him as she set money down for her bowl of ramen, then turned to leave. Ilki would be fine, she told herself, before forcing her mind to other thoughts. The Chūnin Exams were coming up soon, and she wondered if her outline had changed anything. Repercussions from that could be bad…

"Mirani." Sasuke's voice derailed her train of thought, and she shot him an annoyed look. "Let's train."

"We just got back…" She crossed her arms. "_And_ we just ate. Yeesh…take a break." He leveled her with a glare, and she threw up her hands in exasperation. "Fine, fine…I did agree to this, I suppose."

"Wait…you're training Sasuke-teme?" Naruto asked, spewing noodles everywhere. He turned to glare at the Uchiha. "I bet I can still beat you, even if you train, dattebayo!"

The boy simply 'hned' before turning and walking away. Sighing, she followed him. 'Stupid Kakashi…' she thought as she walked. 'I can't believe I agreed to this…like _anyone_ has a chance at changing this emo except Naruto.' Much to his annoyance, she stopped at a store on their way to the training ground. She did not show him what was so important for her to buy, which she could tell irked him even more – she was eating up his "valuable training time." After renting an available training ground, her teammate was quick to demand one thing.

"Show me the jutsu. I'll copy it with my Sharingan."

"That thing is going to make you lazy," she said, shaking her head. "You think you can just copy any jutsu from that thing, ne?" At his silence, she pulled out her purchase from before: chakra paper. "Here, focus your chakra to this."

He frowned, irritated at her teacher-mode, but did as she said. When he focused his chakra to it, the paper crinkled before igniting and turning into ash.

"You have two chakra affinities, lightning and fire." She frowned, trying to remember what she had read about chakra at the library. "It's easier, then, for you to master jutsu that pertain to them. The feeling that comes with them comes easily, while learning other elements requires a bit more time. You'd have to be familiar with the feel of that type of chakra to be able to successfully perform a jutsu with it. Now I don't know much about the Sharingan" –_ lies, I've read about it before…_ –"but I imagine just copying what I do won't work, because you haven't felt Hoshiboshi chakra before."

Holding out her own paper, she repeated what she had done in the shop – she had checked to make sure her speech would be for not. The paper she held lit up brightly, before exploding into dust. It was not something she had ever seen before in the world, but she guessed the whole Hoshiboshi thing was something that tied in with the theory of the sky being an element.

Sasuke simply frowned at the paper. 'And he probably thought this would be a cake-walk…' she thought with an inward smirk. 'Geniuses…' She dusted her hands off, the residue from the paper blowing away in the breeze. Her arm gave the briefest twinge of pain, the injury from her friend still there. The injury had been deep, and was slowly healing. She had a feeling it would leave a scar in the form of four claw-like marks.

"If you want to feel this chakra," she said, bringing herself back to the present. "You need to learn how to channel that chakra. And if you want to get to that, you need to get better at understanding anything celestial. Try stargazing."

Apparently, what she said did not please him, because he glowered at her as she walked away. 'I'm just glad I developed the jutsu for our characters with enough thought and attention to detail…' She bit the inside of her cheek in thought as she walked. 'It's probably the only thing I know for sure now, how to control the Hoshiboshiton and use it.'

–

Sitting at the table in their apartment, Mirani smiled as she looked at the scroll in front of her. It had taken several hours, but she had successfully transcribed every jutsu she could remember for her and Ilki. Glancing out the window, her smile disappeared as she realized it was dark, and her friend had yet to return. The scroll was forgotten as she walked over to the kitchen window, leaning forward on the counter to get a better look outside.

Her uneasiness faded as she saw a familiar figure walking down the street, heading towards the apartment. A smile spread across her face once again, mostly out of happiness that there did not appear to be any problems. She walked over to the front door and opened it as Ilki reached it. Her friend offered her a smile before walking inside and flopping down on the sofa.

"So…" She raised an eyebrow and leaned against the doorframe to the room.

"We already knew the seal was weak," Ilki said, absentmindedly placing a hand on her stomach where the seal was. "Hokage-sama is worried that the seal will continue to weaken and I might become an unstoppable force of destruction on the village." She sighed. "They want to have a seal expert look at it. Until then, the ANBU will be watching us again."

Mirani frowned. "Maybe you can come to an understanding with the Nibi."

"That's what I said. But Hokage-sama said it was 'risky' and that I shouldn't try it…"

She knew that tone of voice, and her frown deepened. It was unwise to go against the Hokage's wishes, especially in this situation, but she knew she had no control of the situation. Her friend was the one who went into her subconscious to talk to the cat, not her – nor anybody else. Theoretically, nobody could stop her from making a deal with the cat and fixing the situation. Still, the Hokage was right; this situation was risky.

A knock startled the two of them, and she glanced at the clock. It was not too late, but late enough that normal people did not go visit other people. Ilki made no indication that she was going to get off the sofa, and she sighed before pushing herself off the doorframe. Opening the door, she was startled to find Sasuke on the other side of it.

"Ano…what are you doing here?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.

"You said to try stargazing. Let's go."

Blinking, she was about to ask why – and then realization hit her. He had probably never tried stargazing, did not know what he was supposed to gain from it, even if he would never admit it. 'Stubborn males…' she thought as she grabbed her jacket.

"Ilki, I'll be back in a bit." Closing the door, she glanced up at the roof of their apartment building. "Roof's not the highest, but it'll work."

Jumping up on it, she then found a comfortable spot to sit. Her teammate sat nearby, keeping a safe distance from her. She smiled at that, remembering stargazing in her other life with others. The whole thing tended to be romantic, and the irony of being in the same situation with the prince of all things emo made it hard to resist laughing.

"Focus on the stars, the moon," she said quietly. It would do no good waking the neighbors up. "Get lost in the darkness of space, let the star- and moonlight calm you." He snorted, and she grinned as she looked at him. "Hey, you wanted to do this."

It was silent for a bit, and she actually found herself enjoying the night. Though autumn had already touched the leaves of the trees, the nights were not freezing yet. As she stared at the stars, she recognized similar constellations to the northern hemisphere that she was used to staring at from her home on Earth. 'Strange, how the Naruto world is practically a parallel dimension…' she thought, studying the stars intently. 'Makes you wonder how many other possible parallel dimensions there are out there.'

"The moon is often associated with spiritual and healing rituals," she said after a bit. "Some jutsu require simple rituals that connect you with the spirit realm, drawing on the power that has been gathered by ancestors for decades. The moon and its phases also deal with emotions. To fully channel the moon's power, you need to have precise control of your emotions; you need to be calm…" She sighed. "Definitely something I need to work on."

He did not say anything, but she could tell he was listening. It still surprised her at how determined he was to learn the Hoshiboshiton. What surprised her more was that she knew what she was talking about. Mentally, she thanked the outline for keeping _something_ straight – that, and her frequent trips to the library. She would not have understood _anything _about chakra if she did not spend her free time there.

"The stars tell stories. Acknowledging that the Hoshiboshiton has deep ties to the past will help with the more complicated and powerful jutsu. I only know the practical jutsu, the ones that require just the raw power of Hoshiboshi chakra. But learning the history of a jutsu, understanding its making and its origination…when you can do that, you can mold it into new, unique, and powerful jutsu. The style you want to learn is different from the other elemental chakra. It's not just one thing, like fire, or wind. Hoshiboshiton encompasses the sky, the universe. It's much more complicated."

She studied the sky for a bit, picking out the constellations she recognized. Raising her hand, she traced a few of the constellations in the air.

"Andromeda, Aquarius, Capricornus, Pegasus, and Pisces. Each has a story; each could be used to create a new jutsu based on it. For instance, the Andromeda constellation is based on a woman who was chained to a cliff, but rescued. That could be used for an escape jutsu."

'Thank god for learning about constellations as a kid,' she thought as she continued talking about the stars. 'You never think you're gonna be given a second chance at life, that you could be sent back in time but still have all the information you gathered from before.' A genuine smile appeared on her face as she thought, but it faltered. 'Of course, if we die…this will all be for nothing…'

–

'Stupid cat,' Ilki thought as she stretched on the sofa. 'Gonna screw up my life…' Turning over, she closed her eyes and pondered falling asleep then and there. It had been a long day; she did not have the energy to move herself into her room. She sighed, shifting again – the sofa was quite uncomfortable, to her dismay. 'I know I shouldn't talk to the cat…but if the seal is strengthened, I won't be able to learn anything from the Nibi.' Her eyes shot open as the thought of black cloaks with red clouds entered her mind. 'If they come after me…and I can't use the Nibi…I probably won't stand a chance… I'll have, what, three years before they start kidnapping everyone? I can't get enough power to at least put up a decent fight without learning from the stupid kitty.'

Groaning, she knew she could not tell the Hokage her reasons why it would not be wise for the seal to be strengthened. 'No one knows they exist yet…and I can't exactly reveal them without making a nice trip over to the Interrogation Unit…' She shivered at the thought and squeezed her eyes shut. From her past experience with her trip into her subconscious, she knew she had to be relatively calm. Taking a few deep breaths, she relaxed her body and began to dig deep into her mind.

She was not one to be calm or relaxed. Her personality had always been the hyper, random one. Relaxing and trying to be serious was possible for her, but it was not a normal occurrence. She was glad she could do it when it was called on. Some situations simply called for her mature self.

Her grip on time slipped as she entered her subconscious. It could have taken minutes to enter the state, or it could have taken hours; she was not sure. All she knew was that there was a caged cat with an amused look in front of her. Its two different colored eyes watched her as she looked around. Her subconscious was a strange place, one she never thought she would visit. With it being only the second time she had gone to it, the novelty of it had yet to rub off.

"What do you want, kitten?" the Nibi asked, placing its head on its paws.

She fidgeted. "Hokage-sama wants the seal strengthened. They think if you are released by my emotions again, I might destroy the village. I was hoping that there was another way…"

The cat laughed, a deep rumble that chilled her to the bone. "I'm naturally interested in death and destruction. Your emotions don't help – you love it as much as I do."

"No." She frowned, trying to sort her thoughts. "It…It's fun to joke about it, but not here, because it's not a joke here. Things are serious…and I can't lose control like that again. I-I _hurt_ my best friend." She took a step forward. "There _has _to be a way to stop that."

"You need to learn how to control your own emotions, then," the Nibi said. "My power reacts to them."

"So I learn how to do that." She crossed her arms, the dusty gears in her mind starting to turn. "Would you let me have access to your power to do as I see fit, only changing into your form when the situation calls for it? And, if a situation like that presented itself, I would like to be able to control the form – none of this mindless killing rampage stuff."

"Very demanding, kitten," the Nibi said with another chilling laugh. "What would I get in return?"

She dreaded asking the question, but she had no choice. "What, um, do you want?"

It was silent for a moment, and she began to wonder if she had just made a very big mistake. 'This could be very bad,' she thought as she fidgeted again.

"I'd like freedom, so that I can rain death and destruction in my own way."

She stumbled in surprise, then looked up at the cat. "Are…are you _serious_?"

"Not in the way you think," the cat said in an amused voice. "It will be a very simple summoning, a Kuchiyose no Jutsu, that will allow me to assume a more…mortal form, in which I will be able to aid you in fighting. Hence, my own form of raining death and destruction."

A strange thought appeared in her head, that of a tiny cat attacking giant shinobi and _winning_. The thought was quite entertaining, and she resisted the urge to laugh. It would be interesting to have a ninja pet…

"So, do we have a deal?" A scroll appeared in front of the cage, where the Nibi already had placed a paw print in blood on the white parchment.

"This better not have any strings attached…," she grumbled as she bit her thumb and smeared her name on it.

The cat gave an amused look at the English letters, but let it pass as the scroll rolled up and disappeared with a 'poof'. "When you return to your normal state, summon me."

Nodding, Ilki felt herself propelled from her own subconscious. She jumped as she opened her eyes, falling off the sofa in the process. Grumbling obscenities as she stood, she looked around the room. ANBU were hiding somewhere, and were probably suspicious as to what had happened. While it may have looked like she had been asleep, she was sure they would know something was up for certain when she fulfilled her end of the deal. To her surprise, her thumb was still bleeding. With a shrug, she gathered a bunch of chakra, unsure of how much she would need, and formed the seals that the cat whispered to her: _boar, dog, bird, monkey, ram_.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

There was a 'poof' and a cloud of smoke, and she stared at it with interest. When it dissipated, her eyes widened at the _blue_ cat standing in front of her. It was as small as a typical housecat, with the two multicolored eyes it had in her subconscious. The only difference between it and normal cats was that it had _two_ tails. As she looked at it, she sneezed.

"Crap…I forgot I'm allergic to you…" She glowered at it, but was interrupted by yet another poof. Cursing again, she barely had time to react before the ANBU had her in a fierce grip.

"We're going to Hokage-sama."

* * *

**Glossary:**

Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Literally "Spiritualism Technique", but more commonly known as "Summoning Jutsu".

_Review please! :)_


	14. Split

A/N: Holy monkeys I updated. I know, I know, I've missed like three normal update times. I blame midterms and evil teachers. Anyways, I made a longer than normal chapter to make up for it. Enjoy! (And again, sorry for the wait!)

**Important:** AAC is temporarily off a biweekly updating schedule, and will only be updated once a week, probably on Saturday. Why? Because my Professional Writing teacher wants us to write a novel. I have to keep a balance between my schoolwork and writing, so AAC has to be pushed to the side for a bit. Not that it won't be worked on (obviously, if it's gonna be updated...), but it's not my main focus. Sorry! I'll try to finish my novel as soon as possible...my teacher hates our class with a passion...

**Disclaimer/Claimer:** I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own the characters Mirani and Ilki, as they have previously been copyrighted to me by a friend who borrowed them for her privately published book. So yay, I own something!

Glossary at end of the chappie.

* * *

The ANBU rather roughly dropped Ilki on the floor of a windowless room. Whatever jutsu the guard had used to drop her inside the dull room inside the Hokage's building had been quick, and she had felt nothing but the rush of air. Grumbling incoherently, she picked herself up and rubbed her back. 'Couldn't have set me down on my feet…_noooo_, had to drop me on my back,' she thought as she glared at the space the guard had disappeared into.

Minutes later, the single door in the bland room slammed open. An irate Sarutobi Hiruzen walked in, and suddenly she felt as if the room had gotten much smaller. Even though he was no longer in his Hokage robes, as it _was_ rather late, the plain black clothes he wore somehow made him seem more imposing. She bit the inside of her cheek as she watched his expression sour even more when he noticed the Nibi sitting next to her.

"You disobeyed my orders."

"But…you said I _shouldn't_, not that I _couldn't_…" She winced at his expression, which had gotten significantly scarier. "I wasn't gonna do anything stupid! I just made a deal…I would have never put the village in danger."

"You _summoned_ the Nibi no Bakeneko inside Konoha," he snapped. "Pray tell, how is that not putting us in danger?"

"I made a deal, and one that won't harm Konoha."

Ilki whipped her head around to the cat that was sitting next to her, and sneezed. As she recovered from it, the Hokage fixed the cat with a mixed look of surprise and anger. As if talking cats were an everyday thing, the Nibi blinked impassively while wrapping its twin tails around itself.

"She gets control of my power, and in return, I am her summoning to help her fight her enemies," the cat continued. "Unless _she_ decides to attack you, I will not."

"O-Oi!" She glared at the cat and sneezed again. "I'm a loyal kunoichi of Konoha! Why would you even suggest that I would attack this village?"

The Nibi's ears flattened. "I'm simply stating the deal."

"And painting me in bad light, you little good for nothing -!" The Hokage cut her off with the clearing of his throat, and she turned back to him. "I seriously would never attack here, really…despite what it says."

"I'm female, kitten. Not 'it.'"

"…_what_?"

Hiruzen cleared his throat again, and she offered a sheepish smile when she turned back to him again. "Despite apparently reaching a deal, you stilled disobeyed my orders."

"But –"

"No buts." He gave her a no-nonsense look, and her hopes plummeted. "You need to face some sort of consequence for this."

She sighed miserably, looking down at the floor. 'And here I thought that I'd get out of this 'cause I actually managed to pull it off…' she thought as she studied the floorboards.

"Even though you reached a compromise with the Nibi, I still want your seal to be looked at by a seal expert. Also, you are going to be placed on a week of probation. No missions, meaning you are temporarily off team seven. ANBU will be watching your movements until further notice."

Her face fell. "Hokage-sama…"

Inwardly, she cursed out the men in black cloaks with red clouds. 'If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have to worry about getting stronger. But I can't tell him that – that would cause more questions than answers. Curses.' Biting her lip in frustration, she turned her studying gaze on the floorboards into a full-blown scowl.

"May I train her?" the Nibi asked from beside her, startling both of them again. "She has much to learn."

He seemed to consider this for a moment, but shook his head in the end. "It's too risky to try in our training grounds. I don't want any unnecessary injuries involving innocent passersby."

The cat bristled. "As I said before, I wouldn't harm anyone in this village. Neither will my kitten…unless she is not properly trained with the chakra she now has access to. Besides, with the easy level of training I would give her, your ANBU would be able to stop her _if_ something happened, which is _highly_ unlikely."

Ilki looked up from her glaring contest with the floor, surprised at the bijū. While there was no way for the cat to know her true intentions in learning her power – or at least, she hoped not – she was surprised at her insistence to train her. It seemed she would even go as far as arguing with an irate Hokage, which she had learned quickly not to do.

"Midday only, when most shinobi are on missions and not nearby," he finally conceded. "Three hours at the most, from eleven in the morning to one in the afternoon."

She blinked before jumping up in happiness. "Yes! Thank you, Hokage-sama!"

–

"I can't believe you did that."

Ilki sighed as her friend glared at her the next morning from across the table. Turning her attention from Mirani, she focused on the surprisingly traditional breakfast her friend had somehow managed to make of rice, miso soup, and grilled fish. She poked the rice with her chopsticks before sneezing. 'Curse you Nibi,' she thought as the cat walked into the kitchen.

"It's all gonna be fine," she said, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. Ignoring her friend's disgusted look, she continued, "I'm still gonna be training. And it's only a week."

"I…heard a rumor in the market the other day that the Chūnin Exams are coming up soon," Mirani said, fighting for words that would not give anything away to the ANBU guards that were around. "You better not jeopardize our chances at getting in, even if we are rookies."

"Heh, if anything, I'm gonna be stronger for them."

"Gah, you're starting to sound like the power-hungry Uchiha," her friend grumbled, stabbing her fish.

She spared a sympathetic look at the grilled fish. "It's already dead, ya know."

It was silent for a moment, until the Nibi jumped up on the table and went after her own fish. She shrieked and pushed the cat off, sneezing in the process.

"No! No cats on the table! I will feed you later!"

Mirani snorted, blowing cat hair away from her direction. "What do you want me to tell everyone today?"

"Make up something," she said with a shrug.

"You are _so_ helpful." Pushing her chair back, she collected her dishes and plopped them in the sink. "This week of probation better yield such improvement that I am blown out of the water so far…"

"If you want that, then let's go practice our water-walking skills."

She barely dodged the chopsticks that came flying at her with impressive speed.

–

Studying the small, bright flare of chakra in Sasuke's hand, Mirani found herself smiling. It had only taken a week for him to pick up the feel of Hoshiboshi chakra, a rate that surprised her. While she knew he was a fast learner, she had not expected him to be _that_ fast. Shaking her head slightly, she looked up from the chakra and gave him her best teacher-approved look – to which she received a glare.

"Congratulations, we can now start working with jutsu," she said, laughing slightly.

"No fair!" Naruto shouted from his spot on the training grounds, where he was sparring with a Kage Bunshin. "Why does Sasuke-teme get to learn new jutsu?"

Kakashi, who was reading his book and leaning against a tree, did not answer him, which only made the blond more infuriated. Next to him sat Sakura, who, with her loud voice, shouted for him to be quiet and to stop interrupting 'Sasuke-kun's' training. Sighing, Mirani massaged her temples briefly before returning to the task at hand. She wanted to practice and perfect her jutsu while helping the Uchiha, and neither of those would be happening if she had a headache from her other teammates. It had been close to impossible to accomplish anything the day she had told them about Ilki being absent for the week…

"Hmmm, now what to start with…"

Her mind trailed off to the original jutsu she had tried when she and Ilki had first landed in the world, the Tsuki no Me. Back then, she had barely been able to perform it; to use it had been fairly out of her reach. It was a knockoff of the Byakugan, and a rather poor one at that. While providing a bird's eye view of her immediate surroundings, it could not pick up chakra signatures, see through walls, or see the chakra system and tenketsu.

The only thing it had going for it was how advantageous it could be in close combat, and, terrain permitting, in scouting. Seeing most of an opponent's movements could easily help the user gain the upper hand. 'And, if compatible with the Sharingan…' Her thoughts trailed off on the advantages he would, could have. 'And I do need to work on the jutsu myself.'

"All right," she finally said. "We're going to work on Tsuki no Me."

–

At the end of team seven's training day, Mirani felt quite accomplished. She had managed to perform the jutsu again, and simply had to work on extending the range. Again, her innate ability to figure out the amount of chakra needed had proved useful, and channeling chakra to her eyes had been easier than channeling it to her feet. While it was dangerous to toy with something as precious as her eyesight, she was thankful for that innate ability she possessed. 'I will never doubt the usage of math again,' she thought as she walked home.

Sasuke, who had already started getting used to channeling chakra to his eyes with the Sharingan, was having little difficulty with the jutsu, too. 'With time and practice, he's gonna start picking these things up fast – really fast. Even _if_ I start him out with the simple ones.' Mentally frowning at the thought, she realized how limited her repertoire was.

Pulling out one of the few scrolls she kept in her weapons pouch, she read it as she walked. There were not _that_ many jutsu she had developed; enough for a chūnin, low jōnin level, maybe, and that was at the level, not the amount. If she wanted to keep up with the power-hungry Uchiha, she would need to not only learn what she had, but find a way to learn more. 'Perhaps…if anyone survived in Getsumeigakure, they might have knowledge…' she thought. 'But before that, I'm gonna need to work on my chakra reserves. I'm going to need to reinstate the training regime I had in the pre-genin days…and up it even more.' She wince, thinking of all the sleep she was going to miss.

The apartment was surprisingly quiet when she unlocked the door and walked in. For a moment, she wondered if Ilki had gone out for ramen – but that theory was proven wrong when the girl poked her head up over the back of the sofa. Her friend smiled and waved, then laid back down.

"How was training?" she asked as she walked into the kitchen.

"Eh. Getting better. Nibi's a real pain, but she knows what she's doing. My chakra control's getting better, and she's been teaching me a few fire jutsu. You?"

She sighed as she opened the cupboard. "Fine. Sasuke's learning great, Sakura is doing her usual nothing, and Naruto is…Naruto. Now, what happened to all the real food?"

"…I get hungry when you're gone, and I don't know how to cook…"

"What is it with Jinchūriki and ramen?" She rolled her eyes as she pulled one out and heated up some water.

"Har har." Ilki padded into the room and sat down at the table. "A chūnin stopped by earlier with a message from Hokage-sama."

"Oh? What'd you do now?"

Her friend glared. "_Nothing_. But we're supposed to report to his office tomorrow morning at seven."

"Boo." She joined her at the table, waiting for the water to heat up. "Where's Nibi, anyways?"

As if on cue, the two-tailed cat walked into the kitchen and jumped up on the table, to which her friend squeaked and swatted the cat off.

"I've told you a bazillion times, you are not allowed on the table!" Ilki grumbled as she repressed a sneeze.

"Feed me," Nibi said simply as she stretched.

Grumbling, she got up and trudged over to another cupboard, where stacks of canned cat food were. Mirani sidestepped her in the small apartment kitchen and went over to the microwave to grab her water, where she heard her friend and the bijū get into another debate about how she deserved better than 'normal' cat food. To her, it was a normal night – at least, since the Nibi had entered their lives.

Despite her nonchalant attitude towards the Hokage's summons, that night, she could not sleep. Ilki was right about not doing anything, as far as she knew. There had been no more surprise trips to the Hokage's office, so apparently she was doing _something _right. She certainly had not done anything wrong; her days had been full of lousy d-rank missions, team training, and one other night of stargazing.

The thought of stargazing with the emo prince still confused her to no end. It had been strange, even if it was a form of training – it was simply _weird_. Pushing her thoughts away from a can of worms she was not in the mood to debate with herself, she refocused back on the Hokage's summons. 'Nothing in my original outline alluded to this,' she thought as she turned over and glanced at her alarm clock. The blaring red digits red half past three in the morning, and she groaned.

Sitting up, she scooted over to the window above her bed and pushed the curtains away. Moonlight filtered in, and she sat cross-legged underneath it. Taking deep breaths, she tried to clear her mind and meditate. She had read somewhere in the library that mediation helped increase spiritual energy, which would in turn eventually help her chakra reserves. 'Nothing like getting a head start on increasing them,' she thought as she attempted to soak up celestial energy.

Her thoughts finally settled an hour or so later, but the thought of going to sleep for less than two hours was more unappealing to her than anything else. With a heavy sigh, she wandered into the kitchen and got herself two cups of black instant coffee. After downing them, she changed and ran laps.

When she returned around six, she found a sleepy Ilki stumbling through her morning routine of eating ramen and showering. She took a shower before they left, and they silently headed towards the Hokage's office. Knowing that her friend was also wary of the reason did not help her nerves, and she found her mind wandering again. 'Evil mind…stop making me worried,' she thought in irritation.

They were allowed to see the Hokage immediately; he was expecting them, after all. While he eyed the Nibi warily, his countenance was calm and, for lack of better description, normal. To be honest, she was surprised he was not still somewhat hostile, but thankful nevertheless. Both bowed in greeting, and Nibi even dipped her head.

"I am glad you both came promptly," he began, puffing on his pipe – despite the fact that it was only morning. "It's nice to see that you two haven't picked up on your sensei's habits." He raised an eyebrow when Ilki snorted in laughter, and even Mirani grinned. "Now, as for the reason I have called you here. You may or may not have heard from circulating gossip in the village that the Chūnin Exams are to take place soon here. Only teams of three can be considered as applicants…"

"…are we not going to be allowed, then?"

The authoress frowned at her friend's question. 'To not even be given a chance…this will be the bell test all over again.'

"I have found a way to remedy the situation," he continued, setting his pipe down. "We were not the only village who had an uneven amount of graduates. In order to give other genin a fair chance at getting in the Exams, we are taking one of graduates that made it to genin and creating another team. In fact, you may know the genin, Mirani."

"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow.

He looked past her, at the door to his office, and simply said, "Enter."

Both turned around as the door opened, and she blinked rapidly. The two that entered were familiar to her, but she could not quite place names to them. What did stand out to her was their hitai-ate, which showed a symbol she had not expected to see so soon, that of a crescent moon. 'Shinobi of Getsugakure?' she wondered. 'No…I feel like I should know these people… Perhaps they were supposed to be from Getsumeigakure…?'

One was older than the other, the escort she assumed, while the younger one she figured was the genin. The older one was the one who caught her attention the most – he looked almost identical to her with his hair and eye color. 'A Tahigoto, maybe? Another survivor…?' While the boy looked nothing like her, something about his brown hair and dark blue eyes jogged her memory. He looked about her age, maybe a year older.

Names finally graced her memory, and she bit back a gasp. These were people she had created when she had developed her character, people from her past. What surprised her was how early they had come in; she was not supposed to meet them for another year or so. 'Curse you, my outline, for taking artistic license on me…'

Still, her irritation at her outline faded, and her wonder at actually creating people took over. Talking about villages and their destruction was one thing – neither she nor Ilki had actual memories of being there and seeing what happened. While people had "died" – and quite literally, she was realizing as her story progressed – seeing actual, living and breathing people she had had a part in creating was, to be blunt, shocking.

They had taken her expression to mean she was surprised to see them; she was, but for different reasons than she knew they thought. As she stood there, the older man stepped forward, almost tentatively.

"Mirani-mei?"

"Norio-oji…" She smiled slightly, trying to force back her shock and instead drudge up what she knew about her past. Her eyes slid to his companion. "And…you were my neighbor and friend, Tsukino Hideaki."

His eyes lit up, and she suddenly found herself in a hug. "You remember!"

She pushed him off, and shot a glare at her snickering friend. "…I don't do hugs."

"Of course you do!" Ilki said, glomping her – and was promptly whacked on the head.

Norio stepped forward, and his expression told her he was fighting back emotion. "It is…to see you alive, it is nice."

Inclining her head slightly in a semi-bow, she said, "I'm glad I'm not alone."

"Welcome to Konoha, Tahigoto-san, Tsukino-san." The Hokage clasped his hands together on his desk and regarded them with a friendly, albeit slightly guarded, expression. It was not typical protocol to have other villages' shinobi in the village except for events such as the Chūnin Exams. "Tsukino-san, you will be placed on a team with Mirani and Ilki, with a Konoha shinobi as your jōnin instructor. The Chūnin Exams are in two weeks. If your sensei decides that you all are ready, you will be nominated. Your sensei will meet you tomorrow morning at seven, at training ground fourteen." He glanced at the Getsugakure shinobi. "Accommodations have been provided for your stay here. You are all dismissed."

–

Ilki watched in interest as the group walked through the streets on Konoha. She had never seen her friend so deep in thought, even back on Earth. It was if she had retreated deep into her mind – probably trying to remember her outline, she figured – yet she was still paying attention to a babbling Hideaki. The boy seemed to take it upon himself to fill her in on everything she had missed in Tsuki no Kuni. Her own thought train was derailed when she sneezed, and she glared at Nibi in return.

"And I thought I was finally getting used to your stupid fur," she grumbled to the cat, who was walking next to her.

"You'll never be able to sneak around if you keep sneezing," the cat replied.

Her eye twitched. "_It's your fault_!" She paused when she realized the other three were watching her, even Mirani. "Heh…sorry about that…"

They were interrupted as Naruto suddenly appeared out of nowhere. "Ilki! You're back! Now we can go for ramen after training, dattebayo!"

"Why wait?" she asked, and the cat shot her a look. "I mean, let's just get ramen for breakfast!"

Mirani sighed. "We don't have the money for your ramen addiction…I barely make anything with these d-ranks, rent's due soon, and you've been 'absent' from missions for the week."

"Don't worry, I'll pay for her!" He grinned and grabbed her by the hand. "Let's go! Kaka-sensei is always late anyways."

Shrugging, she waved at her new team before following the blond to Ichiraku. Surprisingly, the stand was open in the morning, and both plopped down on the stools. They ordered their usual amount of ramen, and began the process of inhaling the noodles like a vacuum.

"Ne, Ilki…" Naruto said at some point after they finished. "Who were those people walking with you guys?"

"Some people from Mirani's old village," she replied, walking next to him. She realized they were heading towards team seven's bridge. "Oh…hey, we're not training with you guys anymore."

"What?" The blond gave her a shocked look. "Why?"

She did not want to reveal the Chūnin Exams to him, so she settled with, "Hokage-sama decided that five was just too big of squad, so he split us up into another team with another genin. Can you let the others know, too?"

Nibi let out a meow and she looked down. Her tails were twitching in the direction she presumed Mirani was, and realized the cat was trying to get her to leave without talking.

"Aa…what's that?" Naruto asked, following her gaze.

"This is my nin-neko," she replied, picking up the cat, "Kushami."

Nibi's whiskers twitched, and she glared at the Jinchūriki as if to say, 'Really?'.

"That's so cool, dattebayo!" He attempted to pick the cat up, and she jumped away. "Hey…your nin-neko is mean…"

She snorted in laughter; Nibi had probably sensed the Kyūbi no Yōko and was attempting to get away from it. She meowed again, which sounded more like a yowl, and started to walk away.

"Sorry, Naruto, but I gotta go." She sped after the cat.

"_Sneeze_?" Nibi hissed as they walked. "_That's _my name?"

–

The coffee-maker beeped, and Mirani absentmindedly took the pot. She watched the warm, delicious liquid pour into the mug she had pulled out, her thoughts far away from her caffeine addiction. Her thought train was on the track of Norio and Hideaki, who had so quickly entered her life. In one day, she had learned so much more about her past than she had developed.

Norio and she were the only survivors of the Tahigoto clan. As for the old village, very few had escaped the destruction. Most of them lived in Getsugakure now, but some of them had given up the shinobi life and lived in civilian towns now. The hidden village that had been built to replace Getsumei was small, very small now, with few powerful shinobi.

It felt strange to know she had family in a world she once thought was fiction. 'If I hadn't almost died several times… I would never believe it,' she thought as she sipped her coffee. Her thoughts drifted to Hideaki, her new teammate. The boy was nice, hyper, but not as hyper as Naruto. According to her uncle, his personality was a new thing – he had been closed to the world ever since the destruction of Getsumei, but that had changed when they had received news of her survival. 'Apparently, I was really close to him. This is gonna be hard to play off…'

At the end of the day, she had asked Norio about the Hoshiboshiton and if he could teach her further in it. He had agreed, and to her surprise, offered for her to come to Getsu to learn. Apparently, not all of the Tahigoto's clan's library had been destroyed; there were still scrolls of jutsu for her to learn.

Her thoughts were interrupted as a sleepy Ilki wandered into the kitchen, her yawning cut short by a sneeze. She reached into one of the cupboards and pulled out a cup ramen, which was knocked out of her hand by Mirani. Glaring, she picked up the ramen and checked over it to make sure there was no damage to the precious food.

"Why'd you do that?" she grumbled.

"We're meeting a new sensei today," she replied, setting her empty mug down on the counter. "The least you can do is eat decently. Who knows if we'll have a test like the bell test?"

Grumbling incoherently, her friend reached into the fridge and pulled out fruit. Smiling to herself, the authoress washed her cup and gathered her weapons, ready to leave. Her friend joined her after she finished eating, and the two headed for training ground fourteen.

"Umm…you do know it's eight o'clock, right?" Ilki asked as the two walked.

"We'll blame it on having Kakashi as a sensei," she said, shrugging.

When they reached the clearing, Hideaki and a woman were waiting for them. She blinked in surprise at their jōnin sensei, a person she had never seen the show before. The woman looked to be in her early twenties, with long blond hair and violet eyes. Her most striking feature was a golden tail, one that reminded her of a golden retriever. She was eying them with both amusement and irritation.

"I see you two have picked up Kakashi-san's habit," she said, tail swishing behind her.

"Heh, sorry." Mirani shrugged, but glanced at Nibi when the cat meowed at their new sensei. It was not a threatening meow, so she pushed it from her mind.

"Don't do it again." Their sensei smiled, but a sudden killer intent filled the clearing.

"Er…sure?" Ilki blinked; both of them were still unused to killer intent.

"Good." She crossed her arms and regarded them all. "My name is Inuzuka Aru, and –"

"Question." The Jinchūriki raised her hand, and her friend smirked at her behavior – _leave it to her…_ "We had an Inuzuka in our Academy class, but he had a dog with him. Why don't you have a dog?"

Killer intent flared, but Aru regarded her with a smile. "That's need-to-know information, irritating gaki. Now, how about you all introduce yourselves, so I don't have to come up with nicknames for ya?" After they gave her their names, she said, "Great. Now, down to business…"

Out of nowhere came a barrage of weapons, and the three genin jumped away.

"Let's see what you brats can do."

Mirani glanced at her friend, who nodded, knowing they needed time to make a plan. She turned to Hideaki and mouthed 'run' before turning and running into the surrounding woods. They split up in the trees to separate their chakra signatures, and she could sense her friend making several clones to scatter her chakra even more. Not long after they dispersed, she felt one of the Ilkis heading in her direction. She shifted her direction to where she felt her other teammate, and the three intersected on a tree branch.

"So…what's the plan?" her friend asked as she landed.

Glancing at her, she sighed. "Nice…you sent a Kage Bunshin to us…where's the real you?"

"Heh, you noticed?"

"You don't have 'Kushami' with you," she replied, remembering the name from when the two had returned arguing the other day.

"Kushami?" Hideaki looked between the two.

"My nin-neko."

"Anyways, plan." She glanced at the boy. "What ton do you use?"

"Norio-san has been teaching me your Hoshiboshiton, actually."

"Aa…you know the Taiyoukei Hakkei, then?" At his nod, she smiled. "Well that's convenient…about the only thing I know, anyways. Hmm…Ilki, I think it's time we see what your training has accomplished. Wanna find Aru-sensei and distract her while Hideaki and I figure out how to work our Taiyoukei Hakkei?"

"Bah…without bells, this isn't half the fun." Ilki disappeared with a poof.

Somewhere in the forest, there was an explosion and the flare of demonic chakra. To her surprise, she sensed two presences: one of her friend's, tainted with demonic chakra, and the other of pure demonic chakra. 'So…she let Nibi transform too? That'll keep Aru busy for a while…'

–

The expression on Aru's face was priceless, or, at least, Ilki thought so. She obviously was not expecting a mass of chakra to come flying at her, nevertheless a slightly enlarged nin-neko radiating the same chakra. Neither was she expecting the ball of dark chakra in the form of a Bijūdama. However, the Jinchūriki was not expecting her sensei's strange jutsu.

"Seirei Ōkami Keijō!"

Instead of her sensei standing there, there was instead a large, golden dog. 'But not a bijū,' she realized as she sensed the chakra. 'It's not demonic chakra…strange. What kind of secrets does the Inuzuka _have_?' The three engaged in a strange, animal-taijutsu battle. Trees fell, ground was broken and sent flying, and several things caught on fire. She could not properly gauge how long they had been fighting, but she was getting tired. 'Nibi and I haven't trained enough for me to build up my samina…'

"Taiyoukei Hakkei: Kinsei!"

She recognized her friend's voice, and with a start, recognized what jutsu she had just performed. Nibi, who had heard it from inside her container's body in the Nami no Kuni, followed her lead as she held her breath.

"Taiyoukei: Kaiousei!"

From Hideaki came the non-magnetic whirlwind that sent the gas everywhere in the clearing. Aru jumped out of it, landing on a branch on in a tree above the gas on the ground.

"Well well," she said, speaking perfectly even though she was in a wolf form. "You three have promise…and apparently teamwork. Let's see how long you can last…and what else you can do…"

Ilki growled, exhaling as the gas disappeared. 'This is gonna be a long day.'

* * *

A/N: I wanted to make sure the Chūnin Exams went smoothly with my OCs, so I incorporated this whole thing. This is the only filler chapter for this; the Exams start next chapter.

**Glossary:**

_General:_

Mei – niece.

Oji – uncle, used when talking about your own family.

Ton – release.

_Aru's Jutsu:_

Seirei Ōkami Keijō – Spirit Wolf Form.

_Names:_

Norio – "man of principles."

Hideaki – "shining excellence; splendid brightness."

Tsukino – "moon field", or "of the moon." (Thanks Sapphire-sama Dreamer!)

Kushami – sneeze.

_Review please! :)_


	15. First Exam: Enter Godzilla

A/N: I should have fan art out for my characters soon - my one friend is going to be kind enough to draw them with her super awesome anime/manga drawing skills (and she'll be taking my money in the process. lol)

I was a little iffy about this chapter, but the AAC committee passed it, so I'll see what you guys think.

**Disclaimer/Claimer:** I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own the characters Mirani and Ilki, as they have previously been copyrighted to me by a friend who borrowed them for her privately published book. So yay, I own something!

Glossary at end of the chappie.

* * *

"I have recommended you three for the Chūnin Exams," Aru said, handing her team application forms. "After the two weeks I spent with all of ya, I think you're ready to give it a go. Exams are start tomorrow, at four in room three-oh-one."

As Ilki twirled around, application held in the air, Mirani fiddled with hers. The reality of the exams and what came with them crashed down on her as she gazed at the piece of paper. 'Are we ready to get involved in this?' she wondered, glancing at her teammates. 'There's no guarantee for anything anymore.' Sighing, she slid the paper into the top of her weapon pouches for later. When she looked up, she found their sensei watching her friend in irritation, an expression mirrored by Nibi.

"Ya know what…" Aru's tail swished. "I don't feel like dealing with you right now. Y'all are dismissed."

Ilki let out a whoop before picking up an unsuspecting Nibi and speeding away. "Whoooo! A day off!"

"How does she always have so much energy?" Hideaki asked, watching her retreating form.

She shrugged. "Still…we should go after her before she does something."

"Come on, slow-pokes!" Her friend was standing on the edges of the training ground their team used as a meeting place, waving her hands – and the cat that was still in her grip. They could hear the growls from they were.

"Kitten, _put me down_!"

Hideaki laughed and turned to Mirani. "Shall we?"

She smiled and followed him to her friend, who was by then having a glaring contest with her cat. When she broke it off, the three continued in the general direction of the market. It was still early in the day, and she would be lying to herself if she thought they would have a day to kill. Aru had kept them on a surprisingly strict schedule of training and missions, and any spare time she had left was spent training with Norio. Something about training made her frown, and she felt as if she was forgetting something.

"Aa…Ilki!" Naruto's voice interrupted her thoughts, and she looked up to see team seven walking towards them. "Kaka-sensei gave us Chūnin Exam applications!"

"So did our sensei," her friend replied with a wide grin.

"This calls for celebratory ramen, dattebayo!"

"Let's go!"

The two sped off, leaving everyone in their dust. She sighed; there went a bunch of the money they had earned.

"Eh…Mirani, who's this?" Sakura asked, glancing between the two.

"My teammate."

"Tsukino Hideaki," the boy in question said with a smile. "You must be Haruno Sakura, and you" - he glanced at the other member of team seven – "Uchiha Sasuke. Ilki and Mirani told me about all of you, including Uzumaki Naruto. He was that blond, right?" He glanced at his teammate, and she nodded before he turned back to Sakura. "It's nice to finally meet you."

"Y-Yeah," the pinkette replied with a smile of her own, somehow already enamored by him. The beginning sparks of a new fan girl appeared in her eyes.

Mirani rolled her eyes, but stopped when she felt a glare aimed at her. 'Come to think of it, I've felt like someone's glaring at me ever since we ran into them,' she thought, turning to the Uchiha; sure enough, he was glaring his famous glare. She glowered and snapped, "What's your problem?"

"You haven't been at training," he said, shoving his hands in his pickets and resuming his natural arrogant expression, as if he had just solved the problem.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious." She crossed her arms in irritation. "I've been with my team, 'cause, you know, Ilki and I were temporarily taken off team seven…"

He 'hned' in reply.

"Don't 'hn' at me," she said, her irritation level rising. "I have no idea what you're talking about…" Her memories kicked in, the one that had been bugging her earlier. "_Oh_…"

"Took you long enough."

"Aa…I'm sorry, Sasuke, I completely forgot about training with ya." She uncrossed her arms and rubbed her temples, feeling a headache come on. One day before the exams, and now he reminded her; she inwardly cursed him. "Um…I guess today's open, since Aru-sensei gave us off, but Norio-oji trains me in the evenings, so…maybe this afternoon?"

He 'hned' again before turning and walking away.

"I will take that as a yes." She rolled her eyes and turned to Hideaki. "If you _ever_ start talking to me in 'hns', so help me I will sic a caffeinated Ilki on you."

He shivered, but his expression mocked her. "No use of the word 'hn'. Got it."

They were interrupted by a grumbling sound, and Sakura turned red. "Um…sorry, I didn't eat this morning. Stupid Kakashi-sensei always tells us to meet him so early…"

"Come to think of it, I didn't eat much this morning either. My alarm never went off…I think I've been hitting it too hard. I barely had time to drink my coffee." She glanced at her teammate and suddenly grinned. "You look hungry, too. Ya know what, I'm going to be nice – let's go back to my apartment and I'll make something" – she looked back at the pinkette – "for all of us. I know some great recipes before I came to Konoha."

–

"…and this guy looked like a cat! He had this weird face paint on, too! If Sasuke-teme hadn't stole my show, I would have definitely beaten him, dattebayo!"

Naruto paused from his rant to slurp up the ramen Teuchi had just set down, and Ilki happily dug into hers. The blond had been ranting about his run-in with the Sand Siblings while they had waited for their food, and she found his rendition of the events much more entertaining than watching the event on the show – despite the fact that his story was rather embellished. Its contents, however, had bored Nibi, and the cat had disappeared back into her.

Still, hearing about the Sand Siblings stirred memories of the Nami no Kuni in her. Nibi had not been friendly to the other bijū, which had confused her. She spent a great deal of time with Naruto and the Kyūbi, but the two-tails had never tried to threaten them. Instead, the cat was quiet, whether she was in her summoning form or inside her host's head. The situation confused her, and a guess was the only explanation she could muster up; Nibi had never explained why there was a difference. She figured that Naruto and the Kyūbi had never tried to hurt her, while Gaara and the Ichibi did. This, to her, brought up several possible problems with the Chūnin Exams. 'I love Gaara's character and all,' she thought as she slurped her noodles, 'but things aren't gonna be cool if he tries to kill me. Nibi did threaten him, after all.'

Her thoughts were interrupted by her friend as he banged the bowl down and asked for another one. Glancing down at hers, she realized she was eating a great deal slower than normal. She quickly sped up her eating, but stopped again when her nose twitched. There was a scent in the air that her heightened senses picked up, a scent she had not smelled in a very long time. 'That…I haven't had that food in _forever_,' she thought as she picked her head up and sniffed the air. 'And I have a good feeling I know who's making it…' Not for the first time, she was glad that her apartment was only a block away from Ichiraku.

"Want to try something new?" she asked the blond, who was tapping his chopsticks against the counter in irritation.

"Eh?"

"Trust me, you're gonna love it." She slapped money on the counter and grabbed his hand. "Come on!"

As they ran down the street, a group of preschoolers jumped out in front of them. She skidded to a stop, realizing this was the first time she had ever run into the three kids: Sarutobi Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon. Why the last two did not have last names never ceased to confuse her.

"Naruto-nii-chan!" Konohamaru looked surprised and pleased. "Let's play!"

"Sorry munchkins, but I want my food," she replied, tapping her foot impatiently. "And Naruto's coming with me."

The blond looked between the two and scratched the back of his head nervously. Whatever he was about to say, though, was interrupted as a masked shinobi wearing an Ame hitai-ate grabbed the young girl, Moegi. She cried out for her friends as the shinobi started to turn and run away.

"What're you going to do with her?" Konohamaru shouted, but was eclipsed by Naruto's loud voice saying, "Hey, you! Let Moegi go!"

All the shouting made the shinobi chuckle before he fully turned and ran off. Blinking, Ilki realized that the story had taken a turn towards the anime instead of the manga, and she sighed. 'Here I was hoping Iruka wouldn't be testing us…' With a sigh, she followed a determined Naruto who was mumbling something about finding the girl.

The chase led them into the surrounding forest, where they found the shinobi jumping through the trees. At one point, they lost the other kids, and eventually caught up with the kidnapper. He had tied the young girl to a tree, ignoring her cries for help. To her surprise, Naruto did not run headfirst into the clearing; instead, he grabbed her arm and dragged her behind a tree.

"I have an idea," he said.

Her mouth formed a perfect 'o' as she looked at him in shock. "You _do_?"

"Eh…? Stop looking at me like that. But really, I have a plan, dattebayo!"

His plan consisted of him distracting the man while she snuck around the edges of the clearing. She was supposed to free Moegi while the kidnapper was distracted, and then they would attack. It was a sound plan, to her surprise, and she absentmindedly listened to him taunting the disguised Iruka as she approached the tree. Quietly, she walked around the tree and put a finger to her lips when the girl looked at her, and then she cut the rope binding her. Grabbing her, she jumped up on one of the branches and set her down before giving the blond the 'go' signal.

"You don't care what happens to this brat?" the 'Ame' nin was asking.

"What brat?" Naruto replied with a laugh.

He whipped around and let out a grunt of surprise when he saw that she was missing. Then he glanced up and saw a smirking Ilki, who patted the girl's head before pulling out a kunai.

"You should run," she said, getting into an offensive stance.

When he turned, Naruto caught him by surprise by throwing a net at him. Kage Bunshin appeared from the trees and attacked him, while she helped the girl down. From the trees, Konohamaru and Udon came running, only to find the situation taken care of. Yet when they turned to their captured shinobi, they found he had used the Kawarimi no Jutsu. Konohamaru was about to yell at his 'leader' when she grabbed the blond by the ear.

"Alright munchkins, I want my food," she said as she dragged him away. "Let's go, Naruto."

–

"Noooo, don't tell me you're already done!"

Ilki barely dodged the chopsticks that her friend had thrown in annoyance, but behind her, Naruto was speared to the wall with the utensils holding the fabric on his arm. Somehow, he had not been injured, but his shocked expression made him appear as if he had actually been injured.

"W-What?" He glanced at the chopsticks before pulling them out.

"Heh, sorry Naruto," Mirani replied, turning back to the stove. "I'll make some omelets for you guys, I suppose…otherwise I won't hear the end of it…"

She smiled and sat at the table, the blond following her. It was not too surprising to see Hideaki there, but to see Sakura was unusual. Rarely did her friend show a kind side to the annoying banshee, but she had started to notice subtle changes in her that had started two weeks ago. Mirani was far more tolerant, and she believed that had to do with Hideaki. The boy was not annoying, but he was not exactly silent either. He spent a lot of time with her, and she had begun to notice the lost-puppy dog look in his eyes. She had seen it before, back on Earth, when her friend was around certain boys. Despite her constant denying of it, Ilki knew that her friend became more tolerant around those boys – and therefore, Hideaki.

"Eh…what is that?" Naruto asked, glancing over at what the genin was cooking.

"You'll get to try it soon enough."

He shrugged and turned back to the others, focusing on the pinkette. "Sakura-chan! You won't believe what happened – this ninja tried to take Moegi on our way here, and…"

As he told his story, with his own embellishments, naturally, she found herself laughing along with him and adding to his story. The story stopped, however, when the food was placed in front of them, and the only sounds made were those of happy eaters.

–

Leaves were falling from the trees in the training grounds, and some genin team had had the wonderful d-rank mission of raking them up and into piles. 'So glad we didn't get _this_ mission,' Mirani thought as she laid on one of the piles, watching the remaining leaves falling. Autumn had always been her favorite season because of the colors, and she was quite enjoying her relaxing watch while waiting for Sasuke to show up at the training ground.

She glanced next to her, where Hideaki was enjoying the day, too. He had offered to keep her company until the Uchiha showed up, and she had not minded. It was strange, how easily she had fallen into a friendship that that she had supposedly had before Getsumeigakure had been destroyed. Normally people annoyed her – she was a closet misanthrope. Yet something about him kept him within her tolerance range; he was actually pretty entertaining. She did not dwell on thoughts very often, because it made her think she was impersonating someone. Norio and he had memories she had only created.

When they had first appeared, they had asked her several questions that only the "real" Tahigoto Mirani would know. She had known the answers from creating her character, and they had seemed satisfied with her responses. It had caused a real sense of an identity crisis inside her, and she had done with it what she did with most of her problems: pushed it aside and vowed to worry about it later. Her solution for the moment was to take an Ilki-like approach to the Naruto world and live in the moment. She could worry about who she really was later.

Her thought train came to a screeching halt when she realized something was off about her surroundings. The leaves were no longer falling down from the trees; instead, they were falling up. 'A perfect paradox,' she thought as she slowly sat up. 'One that could only be found in a genjutsu. But why would somebody…_oh…_Iruka-sensei…I should have known it was you testing the rookies. After Naruto's story this morning, it all makes sense.' As she eyed her surroundings, she saw the Ame nin that had appeared in the anime before standing in the clearing, watching her. The genjutsu that had been cast was a simple one, definitely one that could be sensed and picked apart by a genin. She frowned and formed the release sign, dispelling the jutsu.

"I asked what you wanted," Hideaki was saying next to her as she came back to the real world. He was facing the nin, weapons at the ready.

The genjutsu covering Iruka was a more complex one, she realized as she gave her surroundings a once over. If she did not already know that he was in a genjutsu, she had a feeling she would have believed she was being attacked by a legitimate Ame shinobi. All the things she had learned at the Academy and read in the library were useless when she did not have the actual experience of ripping apart a genjutsu. 'Something I'll need to work on.'

Still, this left her with the decision of whether or not to rip apart the illusion. If she wanted to drive the point home that she was skilled enough for the Chūnin Exams, it would certainly help – _which of course leads me to the question of __**if**__ I am ready for it_. Pushing those thoughts away, she stood up and placed her hands on her hips.

"What the heck, Iruka-sensei? I was enjoying those leaves!"

The nin's eyes widened for just a fraction before he bowed his head and disappeared into the trees. Her friend turned to her.

"You know him?" He still held his weapons.

"Yeah…but why he would attack is beyond me," she replied, shrugging off the lie. "That was weird."

It was at that moment the Sasuke walked into the training grounds, and she saw the slightest twitch in his one eye. She figured it was probably because of her teammate's presence, and she shook her head. 'Power hungry Uchihas and their distractions…'

"Aa, looks like it's time for me to leave," Hideaki said, putting his weapons away.

"See ya tomorrow, a little before four at the Academy."

He grinned. "Aww, we're not having a 'team dinner' beforehand?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Did you just invite yourself over to our apartment? Or do you just love my cooking that much? You're gonna love Ilki's when she bakes… But the answer is still no."

The boy laughed as he walked out of the training grounds, and she turned an impatient Sasuke.

"So, where were we before I left?"

–

It may have been time for lunch, but that did not prevent Mirani from drinking coffee. Her reasoning was that the exams were in a few hours; Ilki did not buy it. She had accused her of having a caffeine addiction, which almost led to a sparring match in the apartment's kitchen. Nevertheless, the two had somehow managed to get out of the apartment on time, and they headed to the Academy.

Hideaki was waiting for them outside, and greeted them with a smile. "I was beginning to think you'd be late."

"Hey…we still have twenty minutes," Ilki said, crossing her arms. "The Academy's not _that_ big."

Mirani simply sipped the coffee she had brought with her, following the two inside. They were late enough to have avoided the genjutsu on the second floor, and never ran into the fight between the bushy-browed Rock Lee and Sasuke. Instead, they made it to room three-oh-one without a hitch. It was there, outside the door, that they ran into team seven and Kakashi, who were talking.

"Hey guys!" Naruto half-shouted, waving as he saw them walking towards them.

'Just drink the coffee,' she thought, ignoring the loudness that ensued between him and Ilki. They were already planning their celebratory ramen for passing the first part of the exams.

"They're really like this all the time," Hideaki said to her, shaking his head. "At first I didn't believe it when you said that, but…"

She snorted and flicked the back of her friend's head. "Come on, dearest. We've got an exam to pass."

"Good luck!" Kakashi gave them all an eye smile before disappearing with a poof.

"Let's go, dattebayo!" Naruto pumped his fist in the air, and even Sakura cracked a smile at him.

She started to walk forward with the rest of her team, but a yank on her arm made her jolt back. When she spun around, she was surprised to see that the Uchiha was holding her back.

"What do you want?" she asked, crossing her arms slightly – her coffee prevented her from fully doing so.

"You are very friendly with that guy," he said simply. "And you need to be reminded of something."

"Eh?" She resisted the urge to drop her jaw in shock. Was _the_ Uchiha Sasuke…?

He 'hned', but continued, "Remember that you agreed to helping me with my ambitions. _Both_ of them."

Her jaw finally dropped as she watched him walk by her. 'H-He just…' Every thought in her mind froze as she watched him walk inside the exam room. 'B-But I never agreed…no wait, I _did_ – oh _eff_… For the love of all that is caffeinated, _why did he bring this up now_? Not only _right before _the Exams, but we're only _twelve_! And I don't view Hideaki like that!'

A maelstrom of emotions spun in her mind as she walked into the exam room, brushing past the original nine rookies and over to where Ilki and Hideaki had found seats. Her friend was perched on the desk, watching her with a confused expression.

"What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

–

The other nine rookies carried about like they had in the show, and the silver-haired shinobi Yakushi Kabuto made his appearance. While Ilki hated him and all he stood for with a passion, no one knew anything about him – therefore she could say nothing. When the shinobi from Otogakure attacked him, she could not help but snicker quietly into her hand. Sure, she did not like them either, but it was still entertaining.

Morino Ibiki, head of the Torture and Interrogation Force and proctor for the first exam, appeared shortly afterwards with a boatload of chūnin to watch them. It was then they found out the first test would actually be a written test, where they would have assigned seats. He explained the point system, and how if they were caught cheating five times, they would fail. Of course, he did not mention that the point of the test was to see if they could successfully cheat. She zoned out for most of it, already knowing what would happen. 'Benefits of knowing things: not having to pay attention to something that took an episode and a half to get through,' she thought as she headed to her assigned seat.

A not-so-pleasant surprise awaited her – she was next to none other than Sabaku no Gaara. She was thankful she had not summoned Nibi since she had disappeared back inside her the day before. If the cat was here now, bad things could, would happen. Even now, she could feel her grumbling in her cage, muttering something about evil raccoon demons.

Turning her head slightly, she was able to look at Mirani, who was sitting several rows behind her. The girl had a faraway look on her face, as if her mind was preoccupied with something much more important than the test being handed out. She had not told her what had happened that had sent her into such a brooding state, and she was starting to wonder if she really wanted to know. Mirani did not brood; she either put up a façade and inwardly brooded or took her problems out on someone else.

When Ibiki finally told them to begin, she dragged her eyes back to the test. Part of it morphed into English while the rest stayed in Japanese, and she frowned. Even with the screwed up grammar that two languages brought, she knew she had no shot at answering these questions. It was not that she was stupid; she was actually pretty smart when she was on Earth. She simply did not apply herself, and she found herself lapsing into that as she stared at the questions. 'With everything going the way it should be,' she thought, tapping her pencil against her chin, 'then I could not answer these questions and still pass. As long as Hideaki doesn't raise his hand for the tenth question.' She spared him a brief glare before returning to her test.

The answer boxes, to her, kind of reminded her of a comic strip. An idea hit her, and the proverbial light bulb went off above her head. Scribbling intently, she began to draw a very strange story. There were nine boxes for her to draw in. As she worked on the first box, her tongue stuck out of the side of her mouth comically.

While she was on box five, she realized that sand was drifting across her paper. Looking up, she was startled to see the sand eye Gaara was using to cheat with was scanning her paper for answers. She looked at him, and blinked when she realized he was looking at her in a mixture of indifference and irritation. Apparently, he had been thinking that her incessant scribbling was actually answers – now, he probably thought she was an idiot. The thought made her smile, and she turned that smile on him to bewilder him even more before returning to her drawing. 'Nibi may not like you, but I do.'

By the end of thirty minutes, she was quite pleased with her masterpiece. Somehow, Frankenstein had recreated Godzilla in his evil laboratory. Godzilla fell in love with some woman and took her to the top of the highest building in some random city, but she did not love him and surely let him know it. Instead, she was in love with some guy that worked for her father's company. He then dropped her and destroyed the city, and carved in the ground (because he somehow knew how to read and write): The City of Cheaters. Why she drew that? No one, including her, knows.

'Ibiki is gonna love this,' she thought as she sat back in her chair and smiled. The last fifteen minutes flew by rather slowly, and she spent the time watching the others around her. None of the rookies had gotten out, but a lot of unimportant, unnamed characters had been caught. 'I wonder what their names were…' she thought as she looked around. 'Who knows if we'll run into them at some other random time? It would be like, "Oh HEY, remember me? I was in the Chūnin Exams with you!"' Her own thoughts made her laugh quietly, and she found Gaara watching her again. Once again, she baffled him with a smile before turning back to her observing, despite Nibi growling inside her. 'Did Mirani…did she fall asleep? No…she's staring out into space…'

"Okay, now, we will begin the tenth question."

Ibiki then proceeded to explain the rules, only interrupted by Kankurō, who had returned from his bathroom break. The rules were simple: either leave before the tenth question and, while you failed, you could still retake the exams another time; or stay, and if you failed the tenth question, remain an eternal genin. A good deal of genin left the room as she watched, and she prayed Hideaki would not raise his hand. She was not worried about Mirani doing something like that.

At some point, Naruto raised his, but then slammed it down on the table and gave a speech about how no matter what, he would become Hokage someday, so he would definitely take the question, even _if_ he failed it. Somehow, that quelled the nerves of everyone who was still debating whether or not to leave. The proctor paused for a moment and glanced at the chūnin who had been watching for cheaters, and then sighed.

"Good decisions. Now to everyone still remaining, I congratulate you on passing the first test!"

There were eighty-one remaining genin, the three of them adding to the original seventy-eight. He explained how the tenth question was the two choices, and that the other nine were used to see how well the genin could gather information. There had been hidden chūnin among the genin with the answers that people could cheat off of – Naruto, naturally, proclaimed that he had seen through the whole thing. _Liar…_

While Ibiki was explaining, he showed them his scarred head and told them that information, at some times, is more important than life. 'So information, because it can be a powerful weapon, is more important than your life,' she thought, frowning. It was not something she agreed with, but she would not bring it up now. That would be a debate with Mirani for another time. Her attention was turned back to the tenth question, which had been a "leap of faith."

As quickly as it had turned the first time, her attention was abruptly drawn to the shattering of glass, and a whirling bundle of cloth appeared in the front of the room. The cloth was pinned to the floor and ceiling, revealing that it was the second exam proctor, Mitarashi Anko. Said proctor was the spiky-haired, scantily clad woman standing in front of them.

"This is no time to be celebrating!" she shouted. "I am the examiner for the second test! Now let's go! FOLLOW ME!"

* * *

**Glossary:**

Ame – rain; I use in reference to Amegakure.

Otogakure – Hidden Sound Village.

_Review please! :)_


	16. Second Exam: You Fail!

**Disclaimer/Claimer:** I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own the characters Mirani and Ilki, as they have previously been copyrighted to me by a friend who borrowed them for her privately published book. So yay, I own something!

Glossary at end of the chappie.

* * *

"Ugh…I think I had too much celebratory ramen…"

Ilki crossed her arms over her stomach and held her sides, trying to ignore the strange sounds it was making. Her friend shot her a bemused look, as if to ask how she could only _now _get sick of ramen. She shot her an annoyed look in return, but inwardly she was happy. Mirani had shown about as much emotion as a brick in the last twelve hours or so, despite being dragged to Ichiraku with team seven and being around the happy genin. If anything, that seemed to make whatever her problem was worse, and she refused to talk about it.

Nevertheless, as they stood in front of the training ground that was the location of the next exam, she hoped whatever the problem was would not interfere with their performance. Her attention turned to Anko, who had stepped forward. 'Time to blow this popsicle stand,' she thought as she cracked her knuckles.

"Welcome to the stage for the second test, practice area forty-four," Anko said with a creepy smile. "Also known as 'The Forest of Death'. You'll soon find out why it's called that."

She shot a glance at Naruto as she heard him mimic her, before telling her quite confidently that he was not afraid of her _or_ the forest. In the blink of an eye, she had thrown a kunai at him and appeared behind him. A small trail of blood appeared on the blond's cheek, and she said something about kids like him dying quickly. She even licked the blood off his cheek, making his expression change rather quickly from confident to something between shocked and scared.

Another nin appeared behind her, one bearing the Kusagakure symbol, and she almost attacked him. Before she could, the nin handed her the kunai she had thrown with his abnormally long, snake-like tongue. With a start, Ilki remembered exactly who that nin really was, and she had to bite down on her lip from screaming obscenities. As with many Naruto fans, she disliked the rumored perverted snake with a passion. Yet, she knew she could say nothing; a glance at the stoic Mirani told her that. If anyone had a reason to reveal him, it was she. While she did not know her friend's exact history, she knew the snake was involved somehow.

"Looks like we have a lot of blood thirsty ones in this test." She giggled in a clinically-insane way. "This should be fun. But, before we start the second test, there's something I have to pass out."

While she passed the forms out, she explained that they were basically forms that said she and Konoha were not responsible if anyone died. She continued, after everyone had one, to explain the second test. It would be a survival test in the circular training ground, but it had a twist. Every team would get one scroll, either "heaven" or "earth", and would have to get another one before they reached the tower in the center by the end of five days. Because there were twenty-seven teams, there would be an extra "earth" scroll out there. Theoretically, only thirteen teams would pass – _if_ that many survived. Teams that opened the scrolls before they got to the tower, lost a team member, or did not make it to the tower in time were disqualified. Lastly, there was no quitting midway through the test.

After signing the forms, they received an "earth" scroll and were led to the gate they would be using to enter the forest. She was antsy, rocking back and forth on her heels. Somewhere in her head the Nibi yowled, and she formed quick seals for the Kuchiyose no Jutsu. Next to her poofed the cat, and she resisted the urge to sneeze. Nibi stretched and yawned before sitting down to join her in waiting.

Without any warning to them, the chūnin escort opened the gate for them to begin. They hesitated for a moment, and then jumped in, taking to the trees. All was quiet in the forest at first, until a blood-curdling scream reverberated through it. It was enough to make her shiver, but the cat keeping speed with her seemed to perk up. She snigged the air, and the distinct sound of purring was heard.

"Finally," she said, "a chance for a bloody battle."

"Control your cat, Ilki," Mirani murmured from her other side. "I don't want to run into any unnecessary battles."

She looked at her in shock. "You talked!"

Her friend rolled her eyes, but said nothing more – probably to spite her further.

–

Perched on a branch high in a tree, Ilki resisted the urge to sneeze. Below her and the rest of her team were two other teams about to engage in battle. It appeared that both teams had yet to notice them or sense their chakra signatures, much to their luck. One team was from Kumogakure, while the other was from Iwagakure. Those from Kumo had their swords out, which they lovingly referred to as the "tōken that would destroy the Iwa nin". Meanwhile, the shinobi from Iwa seemed to be subtly looking for a way out.

Nibi had explained to her that Kumo was known for its use with ration, and that the lightning would be the earth used in doton. 'The battle should severely weaken them,' she thought as her fingers twitched near her weapons pouch. 'If we're lucky, one of them has a "heaven" scroll we can take. Then we'll just have to head to the tower, and we'll be one of the early teams.' Part of her noticed the affect the Nibi's bloodlust on her had, but she pushed that away. That affect increased as a battle commenced below them, and the metallic smell of blood drifted up to her heightened senses.

The Iwa nin put up a good fight, using their doton jutsu as best they could. Most of it seemed to be for defense as the Kumo nin used ration jutsu and their swords to slice through any attack that came near them. In the end, they trapped the Iwa nin and rather easily dispatched them.

"Ugh, Yugito, you got blood on the scroll," one of the male Kumo nin said as he plucked a "heaven" scroll from the Iwa nin.

The blond female sighed as sheathed her sword. "Sorry."

Ilki stopped twitching her fingers as the sound of the blond's name resonated through her mind. 'Nii Yugito…she was the original Jinchūriki for the Nibi no Bakeneko… So now she's just an ordinary genin for Kumo…' The realization did not quite startle her as others had, but it still shocked her on some degree. 'We follow the canon and we still change things in ways that are significant. What have we done?'

Her thoughts were interrupted as her friend gave the signal to drop down and ambush them. They fell from the trees, the only announcement of their presence being only a soft _whish_ and _thud_. Still, the Kumo nin spun around, hands on their swords. There were two males, nameless to Ilki, and then the female, Nii Yugito. They looked to be from the older spectrum of the genin in the exam – late teens to early twenties, probably.

"Really?" one of the males said, eying them. "We're getting ambushed by a bunch of brats?"

"You just picked up a 'heaven' scroll," Hideaki replied, assuming an offensive stance. "We'd like it."

"Pfft."

The Kumo genin attacked quickly and efficiently, putting them quickly on defense. If the battle with the Iwa nin had weakened them, they did not show it. Very quickly, the space was filled with the _clink_ of weapons hitting each other and the occasional blast of jutsu. Somehow, Ilki had ended up fighting Yugito specifically. Nibi helped her, sending quick bouts of fire to keep the blond on her toes. She refused to go into the two-tailed form; something about fighting Yugito made her think twice about it.

"Do I know you?" the blond asked at one point, when the two were locked with her sword and Ilki's Kage Nageyari. "I feel like you've wronged me somehow in the past…"

She bit her lip, refusing to reply as Yugito sent a blast of lightning through her sword. The light quickly dispersed the shadow she was using, and the sword nearly took a chunk out of her midsection. Nibi yowled and jumped forward, sending a larger blast of fire at the girl who had nearly harmed her host. Around them swirled the remains of any of the Taiyoukei Hakkei that Mirani and Hideaki were using; for the safety of their teammate, they had refrained from using the one that sent poison through the air.

At one point, all three were sent crashing towards the center of the clearing they were fighting in. They were all panting heavily, unused to such long combat. 'Even fighting Takeo didn't take this long,' Ilki thought as she eyed the Kumo genin who, though also panting, appeared to have much more stamina. 'Granted, I used Nibi's form back then. But I can't always rely on her…'

"I know we're just learning this jutsu, Hideaki…" Mirani whispered, glancing at her and their male teammate. "But I think it's the surprise we're gonna need. Ilki, stay close to us, but get ready to steal the scroll."

She raised an eyebrow, but nodded when her teammates quickly went through several seals.

"Hoshiboshiton: Chōshinsei!"

The two formed the last seal at the same moment, and even their voices said the jutsu in unison. From the center of their small group, the earth around them seemed to erupt. Chunks of dirt and plants went flying, accompanied by a delayed, blinding flash of light. Ilki squeezed her eyes shut, but still saw through the thin skin of her eyelids a muted, brown-tinted explosion. Her ears twitched under her hitai-ate, picking up the scratchy sound of lightning. 'They must be using a ration to negate the earth,' she realized. Suddenly, the light disappeared, and the chunks of dirt stopped flying around.

"Silly kids," one of the male Kumo nin said. "Your strange ton won't work against lightning –"

"That wasn't the point," Hideaki said, his voice betraying the smirk he was probably wearing.

Ilki opened her eyes in confusion, and was startled to see the crater of destruction her two teammates had made. She was even more startled when Mirani grabbed her by the shoulder and jumped away from the center of the explosion. As a group, they jumped back several paces, and her friend suddenly flew through more signs. Bright flashes of light appeared around them before the bubble-like shield of Seito Maruyane protected them. Confused, she turned to see what could possibly be threatening them outside the dome. What she saw surprised her, to say the least.

Where they stood, there was now a small, black sphere floating in midair. Around them, it seemed like the wind was picking up, pulling everything loose towards that small orb, including the Kumo nin. Despite several jutsu, weapons with rope, and simply holding on to anything solid, the nin were dragged towards the center with such a force that when they finally hit it, they hit it with enough force to knock them out. After a few more seconds, the winds ceased, and the sphere disappeared. Their enemies slumped to the ground in a pile of collected dirt, plants, and leaves, and the surrounding foliage stopped leaning.

"What was _that_?" Ilki asked with wide eyes, glancing between her two teammates.

Mirani dispelled her Seito Maruyane and collapsed on her knees, bracing herself with her arms. "Norio-oji taught us that. It's a huge chakra drainer, but doing it in conjunction with someone else makes it a bit easier to use."

"It's based off a star exploding," Hideaki said as he leaned against a nearby rock.

It made sense, she realized as she remembered what she had learned in her earth science classes – the few times she paid attention. However, there had been a specific question about a star exploding on her midterm, and she remembered the answer had been "c": it can create a black hole. That explained the huge pull that had knocked the Kumo nin out.

"Go get the scroll, dearest," her friend rasped out as she reached for her canteen of water she had brought along.

Rolling her eyes, she walked over and picked the scroll out of the weapons pouch of one of the males. Checking to make sure it was the "heaven" scroll, she then walked back over to her exhausted friends. "Maybe we should do something about them…ya know, not leave them out in the open and stuff. I don't like killing…" She glared at Nibi, who scoffed at her last sentence. "I don't like killing the _innocent_ because of some test. That better?"

Nodding and ignoring the cat, the two helped her move the nin into the surprising hollow underneath of an almost-uprooted tree. Afterwards, they decided to head in the general direction of water for a brief break, and then they would head to the tower. 'Now let's hope nothing goes wrong…'

–

When nighttime hit the forest, it made everything seem larger and more ominous. At least, Ilki thought so, and she was _supposed_ to be one with the shadows. Moonlight barely filtered through the thick foliage, only lighting the areas around the river that ran through the training ground. It was there that they had decided to stop for a bit; it was close to water, something they had very quickly run out of. Hideaki and Nibi were out patrolling a small perimeter around where they had stopped, something they had decided to do in shifts while the other two rested. Nibi had gone along in case she had to communicate with her host to relay important information.

That left her and Mirani, leaning against a large tree. Her friend was slowly sipping the water they had briefly boiled in an attempt to get rid of any bacteria while staring off into space – quite literally. She had yet to say anything directly to the Jinchūriki, though occasionally she would mutter something under her breath. Ilki had just started to count sheep when her friend sighed.

"I need to talk to you." Her friend's silver eyes glinted in the dark as she turned to her. "I probably should have brought this up earlier, but…"

She rubbed her eyes and straightened slightly. "Wassup?"

"Something happened in the Nami no Kuni that I never told you about, and it's escalated into a big problem."

She listened as her friend recounted what had happened with Sasuke, from Kakashi telling her to help him to the boy telling her he was planning on using her to fulfill his second ambition. At first, she had only been slightly surprised; but by the end, her jaw had dropped. If it had been physically possible, she figured it would be on the ground.

"He wants you to be a Sharingan baby factory?"

Mirani, even in the dark, visibly turned red. "Er…I never thought of it in that way."

"Why are you even _contemplating _this, Miss Independent? You never take crap from any guy."

"Call me stupid but…" She looked away. "What if I can change the future?"

Glancing around to make sure Hideaki or Nibi were not nearby, she then leaned forward and whispered, "You know certain things have to happen. And who knows what your outline has planned for us?"

"I know… It's just, what if certain things happened differently? I don't have any intentions on changing anything majorly –"

"That's bull and you know it." She crossed her arms. "Any changes you make have repercussions. Look at who we fought earlier. Nii Yugito…she shouldn't be where she is right now. Besides, you'd really disappoint a certain Getsu nin."

"It's…something to think about," her friend finally said. "And I _don't_ have feelings for him!"

"So you have feelings for a certain 'emo prince', then?"

"_NO!_"

"Suuure, 'cause that's totally why you're considering friggin' _marrying_ him and being a baby factory."

"UGH! This is why I don't tell you these things! You always twist them into –"

Mirani clamped her mouth shut as the two heard a twig snap. Both instinctively reached for a kunai before they saw Hideaki and Nibi drop from the tree. After a quick scrutiny and, on her part, check to make sure Nibi was really Nibi, they lowered their weapons.

"You guys really should keep it down," Hideaki said, sitting down. "As of now, nothing to report. Who's next for patrol?"

She sighed heavily and was about to stand up when Nibi suddenly fluffed and hissed. "What?"

A distinct slithering sound was heard, and from the crevices of the rocks and foliage around them appeared a large amount of snakes.

"Oh f–"

"Well well, looks like today is my lucky day."

–

Mirani hated snakes. Plain and simple, she had had a phobia of them since she was little. The one time a snake had been near her had been on a trip to Colorado when she was still younger than ten, and a garden snake had slithered across her foot. She had screamed bloody murder, even though the snake had simply gone over her foot and into the nearby underbrush. No matter how much her parents had told her it was a harmless little thing, she had never wanted to see one again.

Now she was surrounded by them and their perverted master, Orochimaru. '_Exactly_ how I wanted to spend my night,' she thought as she sat as still as possible. Next to her, and apparently no longer inhibited by the restraint she had shown earlier, Ilki was growling and hunched over, about to go on all fours. Hideaki had spun around when the man had first spoken, and a look of pure hatred was on his face.

"_You_," he hissed, readying a kunai. "You're the one who destroyed my village…"

Orochimaru glanced at him, then slowly dragged his gaze along the rest of the team, eventually landing on her. "I'm not interested in you, boy."

Simply looking in his eyes sent her into a panic. The killer intent that he radiated was enough to hallucinate as team seven had in the manga and see her own death. Fear overwhelmed her, enough that she did not notice the snakes slithering towards her. Only when they wrapped around her did she force the fear away so that it could be replaced by her real fear.

"_Get them off me_!" She struggled against the snakes, trying to grab a kunai so that she could slice through them.

In front of her, Ilki radiated off chakra as she crouched down. "You stay away from my friend."

Next to her, the real Nibi gave off the same demonic chakra as she grew in size. Orochimaru glanced at them and muttered something about annoying Jinchūriki getting in his way. He quickly formed several seals and performed the Kuchiyose no Jutsu, summoning a large snake.

"Fight them," he said, gesturing to her friend and cat. Without turning, he blocked an onslaught of weapons Hideaki threw at him. "And as for the other one…"

She finally succeeded in cutting the snakes up, and she jumped up. 'Shouldn't he be fighting Anko by now?' she wondered as she stepped over to her other teammate. 'He shouldn't be coming after us…' Hideaki formed one of the Taiyoukei Hakkei, sending a blast of fire at the snake man, but he easily sidestepped it.

"You're a Hoshiboshiton user, but you're not pure." He turned his attention to her. "As for you…you're one of the last of the Tahigoto clan. You, I want."

Resisting the urge to shout about him sounding and, in retrospect, probably being a pedophile, she instead took in the situation. They were tired from before, still not fully recovered. Even _if_ they had been fully refreshed, they would not have a chance against the sannin. With that in mind, there was only one true way to handle the situation.

"Ilki, calm down and _run_!" She turned on her heel and sprinted away, dragging Hideaki behind her.

After a few moments, she heard the sound of a hissing and grumbling Ilki following her. Behind her, she knew, was Orochimaru. 'How far can we really run, though, without bumping into another team?' Distracted by her thoughts, she did not notice that instead of jumping onto a branch, she actually jumped on the head of one of Orochimaru's larger snake summonings. Before Hideaki could grab her, the snake whipped its head around and smashed her into a tree. She saw stars and vaguely felt the snake wrapping around her body before she slipped off into the darkness.

–

"We'll meet again, I'm sure," Orochimaru said with a sadistic grin, and then he grabbed the unconscious girl and disappeared in a poof.

Some of the most obscene curses came out of Ilki's mouth as she punched the nearest target, which happened to be a large rock. It shattered under her hand, which still held residue from the Nibi's chakra. Any injuries sustained from it, however, healed quickly. Beside her, Nibi was practically glowing with chakra as she paced back and forth, muttering something about how she hated prey that got away.

"We have to find her." Hideaki was on her other side, curling and uncurling his fist as he glared at the last spot Orochimaru had been. "If I had just been a little quicker…"

"There's no way we can take him on," she replied, the rational and underused side of her brain kicking in. "If he destroyed your village, you know what he's capable of. And we learned about him in the Academy; he's one of the three legendary sannin. We're going to need help."

"Then what do you propose?" he snapped, turning and glaring at her. "There's no way to contact anyone that could help us!"

Frowning, she looked away. 'Now what?' she wondered, fingering her weapons pouch. She was itching to fight him, to let the Nibi take over her so she could tear him to shreds. 'But that is unwise, dangerous, and I could easily go on a killing spree in that state. She lent me her chakra, nothing more.' Suddenly, her fingers hit something other than metal – the scrolls. An idea popped in her head, but just as easily it fizzled. 'We'd fail the exams…but…Mirani is more important than that!'

"We open the scrolls."

"What?" He looked at her incredulously. "What good is that gonna do us?"

She fiddled with them, trying to word her reason so as not to give away the fact that she knew what would happen if they opened them. "Anko-sensei said that they would know if we opened the scrolls. The only way that would happen is if someone was monitoring them, and then did something to that team so that they knew they had failed. My guess is that the scrolls contain a kind of summoning jutsu, then, that would summon someone to deal with us. We can let that person know what happened."

"What if it's a genjutsu that just knocks us out? Did you think of that?"

"Do _you_ have a better idea?"

He looked away. "…no."

"Hmph."

Without further ado, she slit the seal on the scrolls and rolled them open. There was a poof, and to her surprise, Iruka was standing before them. 'I wonder if he wanted to greet all the rookies he taught,' she wondered, but shook her head as she realized he was about to knock them out.

"Nononono, wait!" She backed away from him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think you guys would fail this part." He actually looked sad. "But this is what I have to do."

"NO! We summoned you for a reason! Orochimaru just kidnapped Mirani!"

–

Her head felt as if there were several monkeys running around and clashing cymbals. Mirani resisted the urge to groan as, despite her headache, she remembered exactly what had happened in the last hour or so. At least, she hoped it had only been about an hour – any longer and Orochimaru could already have shipped her off to Oto with one of his goons. 'Oh please _no_.'

She stretched out her senses, refusing to open her eyes and alert him or anyone else to the fact that she was awake. As she did so, she heard the usual sounds of the forest: birds, the rustling of leaves, the occasional whistling sound that wind made. The wind blew past her, blowing several strands of hair in her face. Her reflex was to reach up and push it away, and she managed to negate that reflex with the briefest twitch of her hands. It was then she realized her hands were bound together.

Resisting the urge to frown, she focused her senses to her own body. She could feel rope binding her wrists behind her back, along with bindings on her upper arms and her legs. 'He really wanted to make sure I didn't get away,' she thought with an inward cynical snort. In addition to the bindings, she found she was also gagged – _okay, now this is overkill._

Slowly, she flickered open her eyes, deciding she had spent long enough pretending to still be unconscious. They widened when she realized Orochimaru was standing in front of her, watching in her amusement. He knelt down to her level – she realized she was resting against a tree or rock for support – and he scanned her face.

"Not a trace of your mother in you." He leaned back. "Pity. She was one of my favorite experimental subjects." He chuckled when she growled, a growl that he misinterpreted from "let me go" to "how dare you talk about my mom like that". "I suppose not all is lost, though, since it was your father's clan's jutsu I was after."

Something in his eyes changed from amusement to anger, and she quickly thought back to the history she had written for her clan. 'What happened again?' she wondered as she wracked her brain.

"If your mother had simply remained detached from her mission, as she was supposed to, she wouldn't have been so fiercely loyal to the clan that had adopted her. Then maybe they would still be living…she would still be living. But no, she refused to teach me, even after everything I'd done for her." He refocused back on her, returning from his rant to the present. "Ah, I bet you didn't know that side of your precious mother…? That she was really a spy, for me, to learn your jutsu? Unfortunately I had to punish her, but it looks like she left something for me anyways: you."

If she had not been gagged, she probably would have sounded like Ilki with her sailor's mouth, telling him to go away and leave her alone. As it was, she was fidgeting incessantly, trying to find a way to break the bonds. With her hands tied, she could not form a jutsu, much less escape. Her fidgeting, however, seemed to annoy her captor, who sighed.

"You have spirit, just like she did." A clinical insane smile appeared on his features. "I suppose I'll have to change that." Despite the gag, she screamed when he bit her forearm. "That venom should sedate you long enough 'til I find a place to put you."

She waited for the venom to send her back into oblivion, but was surprised when she still felt normal – relatively. Her right arm, where he had bitten her, had turned numb, minus her hands and her upper arm. It dawned on her suddenly that she might be experiencing what she had saw once on the TV show, _1000 Ways to Die_. Back on Earth, she had been the lazy type that when the remote was too far away from her warm bundle of blankets on the sofa, she just watched whatever channel was on. Whenever her CSI marathons ended on _Spike_, that show typically came on. The one time she had decided to watch it, she had seen a guy who had been on death row, but because of the tightness of the bindings, the injection did not instantly kill him.

'So that's great, but how does this help me?' she wondered as she attempted to frown. She ignored the snake's surprise at her still being conscious. 'He musta miscalculated on how tight the bindings were. This would be awesome if I could loosen the bindings, then I would have a few seconds to escape before I was paralyzed. I'm not powerful enough to beat him into next week that fast. Not gonna happen.' Her cloud's silver lining instantly disappeared, and she glared at the metaphoric blob of water. Her glaring, however, was interrupted when several kunai and shuriken whizzed into the scene.

"Looks like your friends decided to come find you," Orochimaru said, turning towards the source of the weapons.

She tried to yell at them to go away, that they could not handle a sannin, but it came out more like, "Mmph mmmmph _mmphh_!"

To her surprise however, her teammates were not the only ones who appeared. Around them and the little spot the sannin had stopped at were ANBU – a _lot_ of ANBU. 'They musta used Nibi to track my scent, and Ilki and Hideaki to find my familiar chakra signature,' she realized with a sigh of relief.

"Well." Orochimaru frowned, as if he was contemplating fighting them off. After a moment, he turned to her and smiled his crazy smile again. "We'll meet again, Mirani-chan."

He disappeared with a poof, and she was quickly surrounded by her friends and the ANBU. One took off her gag while the other one worked at her ropes.

"No, wait –"

But before she could tell them about the poison in her blood, the loosening of the ropes allowed the venom to pump through her body. 'Ef-em-el,' she thought as she was launched into the darkness.

–

"Is she gonna be okay?"

Hideaki appeared to be as eager as she was, Ilki noticed as she paced in the hospital's waiting room. 'Heh, Mirani may not acknowledge any feelings between the her and him, but he definitely has some,' she thought, but the lightheartedness of it did not fit the situation. Here they were, in the hospital, three and a half days before the end of the second exam, waiting to find out if whatever Orochimaru did to her friend was lethal or not.

It took a few more minutes before a nurse and the Hokage walked into the room from the restricted area. Both did not look happy, but neither did they look upset. 'So I don't know if that's good news or bad news,' she thought with a scowl as she and Hideaki approached them.

"It looks as if whatever he did poisoned her with was just a heavy sedative," the Hokage said, and the nurse nodded in agreement. "But as of now, she can receive no visitors. She's not even awake." He held up a hand before they could ask any other questions. "ANBU will be watching her constantly. Orochimaru will not get to her."

Hideaki let loose a sigh of relief, but Ilki remembered what else she wanted to ask Hiruzen.

"Um, Hokage-sama, about the second exam…"

He finally showed some emotion on his face, that of regret. "I'm sorry, I know you did what you had to do, but you broke the rules. Unfortunately, you all fail."

* * *

A/N: It's almost 2 AM here, on Sunday, so yes, this is late. I apologize, but I'm trying to pack for a vacation I'm leaving on in...three hours. **On this note**: I cannot promise an on time update next Saturday, because I cannot guarantee that I will have internet on my ski vacation. If I can't update Saturday, I'll either update when I get home on Sunday or Monday.

**Also**: This chapter was not inspected by the AAC committee, due to the lateness that it was typed up. If you don't like it, let me know, I'll fix it.

**Also-also**: I've been debating about going back to bi-weekly updates, so I'm leaving it up to you readers. If I update bi-weekly, then the chapters will only be about 2,000 words in length. If I update only on Saturdays, then they'll be about 5,000 words. So would you like shorter chapters more often or longer chapters once a week? Your choice, let me know in a review or a PM.

Last, but certainly not least: Tragicmat1, did I do better with my not-so-many uses of jutsu in the dialogue? I think I did...definitely took your thoughts into mind. :)

**Glossary:**

_General:_**  
**

Kusagakure – Village Hidden in the Grass.

Kumogakure – Village Hidden in the Clouds.

Iwagakure – Village Hidden in the Rocks.

Tōken – sword.

Raiton – Lightning Release/Style.

Doton – Earth Release/Style.

_Mirani/Hideaki's Jutsu:_

Chōshinsei – Supernova.

_And finally...review please! :)_


	17. A Phenomenal Situation

**A/N: **Look who's doing a biweekly update... :) Actually, the reason I'm updating is because one: I'm on vacation and therefore have a lot of time to write; two: I found internet (and paid $40.99 for it); and three: this is a filler. A necessary filler, though. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer/Claimer:** I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own the characters Mirani and Ilki, as they have previously been copyrighted to me by a friend who borrowed them for her privately published book. So yay, I own something!f

* * *

"That snake put her in a coma?"

Ilki slammed her fist on the armrest of the chair she was sitting in, resisting the urge to curse profusely in front of the doctor and the Hokage. Instead, she glared at the doctor, a man that looked to be in his mid-thirties. He had introduced himself as Yasuhiro Satoru, the lead doctor on Mirani's case.

"I am sorry, Samiu-san, but there is nothing we can do until the poison is filtered through her body naturally."

"But it's been a _week_!" She curled and uncurled her fist, ignoring the twinge of pain that had come from smacking the metal armrest. "I've been coming here everyday and waiting, even though you won't let me near her, and you only _now_ decide to tell me this?"

The Hokage sent her a warning look, telling her to show more respect. "Mirani's case has morphed into a more...complicated one. Can you explain, Yasuhiro-san?"

"Of course." The man fiddled with his glasses as he regarded the fuming Jinchūriki. "You see, we took several blood samples to identify the drug used on Tahigoto-san, and as a precautionary measure, we took x-rays of her because of the significant bruising she had. In doing so, we found something quite interesting, and we suspect you may be affected by it, too."

She raised an eyebrow. "We're not related."

"Understandable, but," Hiruzen interjected, "you two both came from a very strange place. When I talked to Mirani after you two first arrived, she spoke briefly of it. Therefore, it is possible that this problem is traceable to that place you two were in."

"...and this 'problem' is...?"

Satoru pulled out a clipboard and flipped through its pages. "What we found was extraordinary. Somehow, she does not have a complete chakra system. It looks as if the chakra system is _growing_ inside her, as if she did not have one in the first place. Her chakra, instead, was flowing through her veins."

"B-But...she can channel chakra..." She furrowed her eyebrows. "How is that possible?"

"It is a strange phenomenon, I agree. The only explanation I have at the moment is that she was pulling her chakra out of her blood, something I believe would be quite dangerous. If she ever suffered complete chakra depletion, I can only assume that it would kill her, as she would disrupt the tenuous balance she has between her blood and chakra. Until her chakra network completes its strange growing stage, she will face this problem."

"We believe that you may be suffering from the same condition," the Hokage said. "If you are willing, Yasuhiro-san would like to take a blood sample and several x-rays. I will admit, I am curious to find out more about this phenomenon."

Her mind was reeling; she knew she probably suffered from the same thing. Humans from Earth did not have chakra, and consequently, chakra networks. 'So the chakra we were supposed to have defaulted to the only other system that runs all over the body, the circulatory system,' she realized, having a stroke of genius. 'Yet, our bodies must be adjusting to this world, if we're growing a chakra network. So strange...how have I controlled-ish the Nibi all this time?' Though her last thought was directed at the cat that was currently inside her, she received no reply. Inwardly shrugging, she turned back to the current situation.

"Um, I guess so," she finally said. "I mean, I wanna know if I'm gonna die if I use too much chakra..."

It was then she remembered her fear of needles. _Poor doctor..._

–

Despite being in a coma, Mirani dreamed. Her dreams were not pleasant, however; instead they were plagued with thoughts of the snake, Orochimaru. It was a never-ending nightmare, where he was successful in kidnapping her and forcing her to do whatever he wanted. Every time she attacked that man, trying to rid herself of the yellow eyes that followed her every movement, she was paralyzed with the fear that she had felt in the forest.

All she wanted was for him to die. He was one of the bad guys, one of the ones who was evil in that crazy, maniacal way that deserved only death. The world would be better without that cold, calculating, blood-thirsty man who dreamed of power and immortality. Yes, he would do much better with his eyes frozen in fear, his black hair matted in his blood, and his pale skin torn and stained red.

The malice she felt reminded her a bit of Ilki, but she did not care. In her dreams, she no longer had to put up her carefully constructed front. There, she could give in to her emotions. She could find a way to forget her fear of getting caught in the carefully crafted web of lies she lived in, and instead mercilessly kill the man in a way that would make even the Nibi disturbed.

Of course, that darkness retreated back to the depths of her soul the moment she left her nightmare and returned to the waking world. It was replaced with pain, excruciating pain on levels she had only felt when she had been badly wounded. Every fiber of her being was on fire as she tried to remember what it was like to be conscious again. Very quickly she found she could not move her body, and panic flooded her system. 'He wouldn't paralyze me, would he?' she wondered in alarm as she struggled to open her eyes.

Several tries later, she managed the feat. Instantly, she was blinded by light, but her reflexes were too slow to close her eyes again. She had to endure several seconds of more pain as her eyes adjusted to the light, and subsequently the ceiling she was staring at. Everything was white, even the small amount of the wall she could see in her peripheral vision. 'The hospital...I must be in the hospital,' she thought as she tried to move her head.

After a few tries, she gave up. If anything, she managed to move her head a smidgen to the left, away from the wall. There was a door now in her peripheral vision, and she could hear the steady beeping of monitors a bit better. Yet that slight movement had made her exert as much energy as she had at that moment, and, even though she could hear someone entering the room, she fell into a blessedly dreamless sleep.

–

"Fascinating..." Satoru held up one of the x-rays to the Hokage and Ilki. "See these grayish dots? That's the checkpoints of your tenketsu on your chakra network, the only visible part of the chakra system on a x-ray. There should normally be three-hundred-sixty-one in one person. In this part of the arm, there should be about twenty, while the whole arm should consist of about forty. But look here, you only have sixteen, and the last four are lighter than the others." He fiddled with his glasses as he eyed them. "We took x-rays every day of Tahigoto-san's one arm, and noticed that the lighter tenketsu were slowly turning the color of the already developed ones. I have no doubt we'd see the same thing in you, Samiu-san."

"What about the actual system?" the Hokage asked, his eyes not leaving the x-rays. "The pathways?"

"I could not tell you unless I performed surgery and actually saw the inside of her body," the doctor said, stroking his chin. "If I had to give an educated guess, I'd say that some are thicker than others, signifying that they are closer to maturation."

"So...let me get this straight." Ilki scratched behind one of her ears. "My chakra is slowly leaving my blood and forming my chakra network, and when it's complete, complete chakra depletion won't kill me?"

"Complete chakra depletion always has a chance of killing you," Satoru replied, eying her exposed ears in curiosity that, despite the explanation, did not sate his interest. "However, in you and Tahigoto-san's case, it would instantly kill you in this state. The balance between your blood and chakra levels has, somehow, managed to reach a level that is adjusting as the chakra naturally leaves to form the network. If you disrupted that level significantly enough, though, it would kill you. I'm guessing you've faced minor cases of chakra depletion before?"

"Yeah. I'd feel weak, but nothing some food, water, and a good night's sleep didn't fix."

"I see. To be honest, I'm surprised your performing jutsu did not kill you. The balance is just right that I'd almost think any tipping of it would kill you. You two are truly amazing cases." His eyes flicked back to the cat ears. "I'd guess that with your rather, um, _unique_ circumstances, the influx of foreign chakra in your circulatory system changed you physically as it messed with the balance."

"We originally thought the seal was weakening," the Hokage said. "But this makes more sense. We've never heard anything about Jinchūriki exhibiting their bijū's qualities, but it was the only explanation at the time. This, however, shines a new light on the transformation."

"That means that once my chakra system is done forming, I no longer face the danger of gaining more cat features?" Ilki sighed in relief. "Thank kami-sama...I didn't want a tail..."

Satoru smiled. "I'm going to study you and Tahigoto-san's blood a bit more for my records, but as of now, the best advice I can give you is to not train excessively. You're not in the final round of the Chūnin Exams, are you?"

Her relief quickly changed to irritation as she glanced at the Hokage. "No."

The doctor looked as if he was going to say something, but was suddenly interrupted by the door opened. He was about to chastise the nurse who walked in, but she quickly held out the clipboard she was holding.

"I'm sorry for interrupting, Yasuhiro-san, but Tahigoto-san awakened from her light coma a few minutes ago!" She nodded towards the clipboard. "She lapsed back into a deep sleep, but her vital signs are stronger than they were."

He grabbed the papers from her hands and quickly flipped through them. "Yes...it seems her vitals spiked up not too long ago, but dropped slightly again. Looks like most of the poison has passed through her system, and chances are she'll be fully awake soon." He looked up at the nurse. "Get a blood sample so we can determine the concentration of any remaining poison, and set up an IV to give her some meds. After what she's been through, she's going to be in a lot of pain."

"H-Hai!"

After she left, Ilki practically bounced out of her chair. 'She's gonna be awake soon!' she thought with a big smile. 'Thank god, I've missed my best friend –' Her thoughts were effectively silenced when the Hokage turned towards her with a sad expression.

"I'm sorry, Ilki, but she can receive no visitors. She's under strict guard by ANBU, and we can't let anyone pass except the doctors and nurses."

–

When Mirani woke up again, the pain had dulled slightly. Her body no longer felt as if it was on fire – no, it now felt as if it was being roasted under a hot sun, as if she had a sunburn. It was not as hard to open her eyes, and she was not as blinded this time around. 'I must of woken up during the day,' she thought as she studied the ceiling again. 'Maybe it's night now, or someone drew the curtains...'

Turning her head was a little bit easier, and she was able to better see the machines she was hooked up to. While she knew she was hooked up to a heart monitor, due to its steady beeping, she realized she was also hooked up to an IV. 'I bet they gave me medicine,' she thought as stared at the bag. 'No wonder the pain dulled.' Her eyes darted to the door when she heard it open, and she saw a dark-haired man walk in the room. The man was wearing white, and she figured he was one of the doctors or nurses. He looked surprised to see her eyes watching his every movement.

"Ah, Tahigoto-san, you are awake." He came over and picked up a clipboard from the end of her bed. "I am Yasuhiro Satoru, your doctor."

She opened her mouth to say something, but was surprised when nothing came out. Her eyebrows furrowed as she tried again, but found her body was sluggish to respond, and her throat was dry and scratchy.

"Don't try to talk," the doctor said as he walked over to her bedside. "You've been in a light coma for the past week, and there is still the smallest trace of poison in your system. Being a sedative, it'll make you very weak and tired. You're probably in a lot of pain, too, but we'll give you medicine for that."

'Great,' she thought in irritation. 'No way to tell him that I'm still in pain.'

"Your voluntary movement should could back in a few days," Satoru continued. "Until then, try to get some sleep. You'll be safe here – there's ANBU keeping watch over you and Uchiha-san."

She attempted to raise an eyebrow, succeeding after a few seconds.

"Ah, yes, you are sharing a room with another patient, Uchiha Sasuke. He too needed to be placed under ANBU watch, and we decided it would be easier if we kept you both in the same room."

That made her inwardly frown. 'If Orochimaru _did_ come after us, we'd be sitting ducks, despite having an ANBU guard. They should have split us up...' Her thoughts faltered as she watched the doctor bid her goodnight and leave. 'Then again, if they split us up, Orochimaru would probably destroy most of the hospital looking for us. It's not like he's looking for Sasuke right now, anyways, and they probably think he wouldn't do something as rash as infiltrating the hospital. I hope they're right...' Her thoughts faltered again as she felt her eyelids droop shut. 'Him being in the hospital means that the preliminaries are over...we've only got a month before the village goes to Hell...'

–

For the next few days, Mirani drifted in-between sleep and consciousness frequently. She hated the feeling, and the occasional nightmare she faced. When, by the fourth day, she was able to sit up and move her arms and legs with only a slight delay, she finally felt a twinge of happiness. 'Soon I can get out of this freaking hospital,' she thought as she stared at the tray of hospital food in front of her. Her eyes drifted over to the Uchiha. 'I wonder when Kakashi will come and "spirit him away" to train...' The Uchiha slept like she did on most days; if she remembered correctly, the sealing of the curse seal had taken a lot out of him.

Turning back to her food, she was quickly distracted again by the door opening. In walked Satoru, smiling when he saw her sitting up. She smiled in return, but then went back to the barely edible food she had received. When he did not leave after checking her IV and the notes that resided at the end of her bed, she looked up from her rice in confusion.

"There is something I'd like to talk to you about, Tahigoto-san."

Her confusion quickly changed to shock as she was told about her chakra system situation. Granted, it explained a lot, but it left her with more questions than answers. 'Does that mean anyone from Earth could come here and have chakra?' she wondered as she watched the doctor leave. 'Or do we have "hidden potential" there, if people knew how to activate chakra? The possibilities are endless...I guess I should just be thankful we didn't end up in some backwater village, struggling to use our chakra. We could have accidentally killed ourselves.'

"Good grief..." she whispered to herself as she looked down at her unfinished rice. "First Orochimaru, now this..."

"You know Orochimaru?"

She jumped slightly, whipping her head towards the boy who had been silent the whole time she had been awake. Sasuke was not sitting up, but had his head turned towards her. His onyx eyes, usually just a mirror to his stoic personality, were suddenly curious and, not surprisingly, hinted at his power-hungriness. 'Probably contemplating the power Orochimaru could give him...'

"Yes." She turned back to the rice. "He tried to kidnap me during the second exam – wanted my power." She snorted and mumbled under her breath, "Why he couldn't have just spared someone when he destroyed my home village is beyond me."

"That's why you failed." It was not a question – the Uchiha had figured it out.

"Yeah." She had a pretty good idea with what they did; there was only one way to contact anyone in that forest. "I think they used the summoning jutsu on the scrolls to tell someone, and the ANBU stopped Orochimaru before he could get me out of the forest. Didn't stop him from sedating me first, though." Looking back at him, she put on a stupid front. "How do you know about him?"

He was quiet for a moment, and she figured he was not going to give her an answer. But, to her surprise, he finally said, "He attacked Sakura, Naruto, and I in the forest."

"After your power, too?"

"Hn." With the position he was in, she could just make out the black markings of the curse seal.

"I'll take that as a yes." She gestured with her chopsticks at that mark, making what she hoped seemed like a logical conclusion – she did not want to give away that she knew exactly what had happened to team seven. "That from him?"

"Hn."

For the briefest moment, panic flooded her and she glanced down at her arm. Orochimaru had bit her to sedate her, but now she wondered if he had also given her a curse seal. To her relief, she saw only the puncture wounds – no black marks.

"He gave me power."

She looked up from her arm in shock, surprised that the Uchiha was actually continuing a conversation. 'Perhaps he's sharing this with me because I'm supposed to help him get power?' The idea was plausible, but she quickly dismissed the thoughts that followed. 'Last thing I need is a repeat of that conversation I had with Ilki.'

"From that mark?" she finally asked, deciding it was a safe question.

He nodded slightly, turning to stare at the ceiling in, presumably, thought. However, his stares were more like glares, and she felt a brief pang of sorrow for the victimized ceiling. Nevertheless, her attention reverted back to the fact that he was considering the power the snake sannin could give him.

"Just...be careful with that guy," she said after a moment, before asking something that she regretted the moment the question left her mouth. "Why do you need all this power, anyways?"

It was not that she did not know what had happened, but some part of her wondered if he would tell her. She was supposed to be helping him, and she had started to wonder how much he would trust her. 'If I earn trust, I have a better chance at changing things,' she thought, forcibly pushing Ilki's warning out of her head. 'I'm supposed to be the sensible one. I know what I'm doing...right?'

He, on his part, had stiffened the moment the question left her mouth. The ceiling suddenly got an even worse glare; enough that if looks could kill, she had no doubt that the ceiling would turn into ash. She partially regretted asking the question, knowing that it had dredged up memories, but her curiosity had won over. Besides, she figured that the Uchiha spent most of his time brooding on his ambitions – it was not like she was tearing open an old wound that had truly healed.

"Um...nevermind, I guess," she said, a solid five minutes passing between the last words she spoke.

She returned to eating her rice in silence – an uncomfortable, tension-filled silence. When she finished, she set the tray on the small nightstand next to her bed. As she returned back to her sitting position, she was startled by the hate-filled voice that filled the room.

"I have to get stronger to kill the man that killed my clan, my brother."

It was not the malice that shocked her, though; it was the words that were said. Sure, it was not a life story, but it was the fact that she had gotten an answer. Konoha knew very little about the Uchiha massacre, and she had even picked up a few rumors from people who gossiped when they saw the survivor walking through the market. Most did not know it was his brother that murdered the clan, even. That little bit of information he had shared, therefore, was more than most people knew. 'So spending time with him has paid off,' she thought as she glanced at him.

He had turned towards her, waiting for a reaction. 'But what do you say to something like that?' she wondered, biting the inside of her cheek. 'Saying "I'm so sorry" is probably something he hears all the time, and likely something he doesn't wanna keep hearing. Asking another question would be suicide – he would have said more if he wanted to. That leaves me with...practically nothing. Great.' After a moment, she also crossed off mentioning anything about how he would eventually regret it off her list, as that would be just plain stupid. That would lead to too many questions that did not have answers.

"I don't know what to say," she finally decided on as she shifted her gaze to the window. The sun was shining – _it should be raining with the mood of this conversation._ "I'd say I understand, but...when my clan was destroyed, it wasn't by someone in the family. I guess the only thing I can understand is the hatred for that person."

Yet, what she said was not the whole truth. She could not truly understand, because she never really knew her destroyed family. To her, her family was the one on Earth: the parents she grew up with, the crazy extended family that drove her nuts. As far as she knew, they were still alive and happy. It was impossible for her to contemplate what it would feel like if she lost them. As for hating that person, she knew without a doubt she hated Orochimaru. If she had the chance, and the power, she would not hesitate to kill him after his usefulness in the show was done. He needed to be brought to justice for the crimes he committed and would commit, nevermind the destruction she had written into his past.

She sighed, and said the words she figured she would later regret, "You gotta do what you gotta do."

The Uchiha did not ask her any questions on her reply, but she saw something indecipherable flash across his face. 'Anger?' she wondered. 'Or maybe it was thankfulness for not saying "I'm sorry" about the whole thing. Who knows?'

Silence reigned between the two of them for the rest of the day, neither saying anything about the conversation. 'Perhaps that's for the best. I think our little trust has had its exercise for the day.'

When she woke up the next morning, he was gone.

–

The receptionist seemed to be getting used to seeing Ilki walk in the hospital at least four times a day, and she noticed she was used to seeing her reaction when she was told that her friend still could not have visitors. So when she was told that the Hokage would let her see Mirani if she brought the rest of her team along, she practically flew out the door.

She found Hideaki at one of the training grounds with Norio, and the boy matched her speed when she told him that Mirani was allowed to see her team. They found Aru at the Inuzuka compound, who, while not as excited as they were, followed them to the hospital. One of the nurses was waiting for them, and she led them to the room. After passing several visible ANBU guards, and probably a bunch of hidden ones, the nurse opened one of the doors and let them through.

Mirani was sitting on the bed, legs dangling off the edge, while talking to the Hokage. As soon as she saw her, Ilki smiled wide and gave her a flying glomp, enough to make her friend wince. She quickly released her and gave her an apologetic smile. The Hokage cleared his throat, and she turned her attention to him.

"We've been discussing how to best protect Mirani until we can locate Orochimaru," he began, glancing at the rest of the team. "A henge may protect her, but she is quite averse to the idea."

"If he wants to find me, a henge won't stop him," the girl in question replied, crossing her arms. "And I really don't wanna live as a civilian for an undisclosed period of time."

"Why can't she just stay at our apartment?" Ilki asked, mirroring her friend's posture. "Put another ANBU guard on us or something."

"ANBU will be watching her closely, that I can assure you." His gaze fixed on Hideaki. "ANBU will also be guarding you and Norio-san. Do not take it as an offense – we're not suspicious of you. However, if Orochimaru can't get Mirani, he may go after you two."

"Understood," Hideaki said with a nod. "I'll tell Norio-sensei."

"As you for you," the Hokage continued, turning back to Mirani. "Perhaps we could place you with a jōnin for immediate protection."

Aru snorted. "I can see where this is going."

"Indeed. So she can stay with you, Aru? This will be considered an A-rank mission, and you will be compensated for the duration."

"She's one of my brats, so I suppose I have to." The blond sighed, but it seemed halfhearted. "Pack your stuff and meet me at the Inuzuka compound in an hour."

–

"I don't want you to leave," Ilki grumbled as she followed her friend. "It's been boring enough without you here for the past two weeks."

"Hopefully, I won't have to stay here long." Mirani had a distant look on her face as she faced the Inuzuka compound. "The final exam is in two weeks, isn't it?"

She nodded, her thought train choo-chooing along the same path as the girl next to her. 'Everything goes downhill from there,' she realized. 'No more happy village, happy genin, happy _anything_. All because of that snake.' Nibi stirred inside of her, sensing the distress of her host. She quickly told her that nothing was wrong, to just go back to sleep or whatever. 'Last thing I need is to go crazy 'cause of my thoughts.'

"Well, let's enjoy what we have now," Mirani finally said, her tone guarded. The Jinchūriki noticed, and figured it was because they were being watched.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow or something?" she asked, watching a leaf blow by her.

"Yeah, probably."

–

To Mirani's surprise, Aru did not actually live in the main part of the Inuzuka compound. She had a small little apartment on the outskirts – small enough that she would be sleeping on the couch instead of having a room. Her sensei told her she would take her training the next day to get her out of her comatose state.

"But for now," Aru was saying as Mirani set her things down in the living room, "I have to go let the others know we have someone who's not an Inuzuka staying here. Otherwise they'll sniff you out and think you're an intruder. The ANBU are already here, too, so I also gotta let them know about that. You should be fine for the little bit I'll be gone."

She nodded, and her sensei disappeared with a poof. 'I really need to learn that teleportation jutsu everyone uses,' she thought as she sat down, glancing around the apartment. With nothing better to do, she pulled out a library book about genjutsu and curled up on the couch.

Aru was gone for a while, and she figured it was simply taking a while to explain the situation. 'Probably don't want me here, considering the danger I bring with me,' she figured as she turned a page in her book. She almost dropped the book when someone knocked on the window. 'What the heck is with people and windows in this world? Can't they use the freaking door?'

Cautiously, she approached the window. 'Orochimaru wouldn't be stupid enough to attack me here, he _wouldn't_. He's gotta be too busy impersonating the Kazekage or something, right?' She peeked over the edge of the windowsill and saw that it was actually Hideaki balancing on the second-story ledge. Her eyes widened and she was about to open the window when she stopped. 'Could it be a henge, or a genjutsu?' Glancing at him, she did not see any immediate differences, but she nevertheless followed the advice she had just read. Branching out her chakra, she tried to sense if there was any difference between the chakra of this person and the person she was used to seeing. When she was satisfied she could not sense anything, she opened the window.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, stepping aside to let him in. "And why didn't you use the door?"

He smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, but the lady that owns this building wouldn't let me through. Said I wasn't an Inuzuka."

"...huh, guess I was let through 'cause I was with Aru-sensei." She shrugged and closed the window. "So what's up?"

"Norio-sensei wanted to know how you were doing," he answered, leaning against the wall. "He said we can resume light training tomorrow to help you get back to where you were."

"I'll ask Aru-sensei. She was gonna get me back on training tomorrow anyways."

"Think she'd let you come over today to visit us?"

She frowned. "Probably not. And if I just left, she'd be livid."

It was silent for a moment, but Hideaki suddenly turned to her with a very hurt face. She blinked, unused to seeing such an expression – especially when she realized that the hurt reached his eyes. The combination of puppy eyes plus the general look that made her feel like she just kicked said puppy made her want to burst into tears.

"W-What's that expression for?"

"Why are you avoiding me?"

"But I'm not ignoring you," she said, looking away. _Anywhere but that face... _"I legitimately can't leave."

"You started ignoring me around the Chūnin Exams, and even Ilki didn't know what was wrong with you."

"Ah...that..."

She bit her lip, unsure of how to reply. Telling Ilki the situation was one thing, but telling Hideaki seemed, to her, a completely different situation. As much as tried to blind herself to it, she knew, just as her friend knew, that the boy had a crush on her. She would have to be blind not to see that much. 'But how do I let him down without being mean?' she wondered, continuously chewing on her abused lip. 'It's not even the whole Sasuke thing, it's just that, plain and simple, we're too young for this. Besides, it would ruin the supposedly "life-long" friendship we have.'

"Look..." She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Maybe I didn't handle the situation in the best way possible, but..." She cursed under her breath – this was not going to be easy. "Okay, I'm twelve, almost thirteen, as are you. But that doesn't mean I'm blind. I know you have certain feelings for me, but it's just...this isn't a good time for them to be brought up. I didn't mean to avoid you, I guess I was just trying to create some...distance. You're one of my best friends, and that's how I want to keep it."

'No, it's never easy to do this,' she thought as she watched that hurt expression change for the worse. 'But it has to be done. And not just for you, Sasuke...' In her mind, she cursed him out.

"I, uh, see." The hurt expression was quickly replaced with a mask of normality, but it did not reach his eyes. "How about, then, we just do training? As friends."

A weak smile crossed her face. "I'd like that."

'This is gonna be a long two weeks.'

* * *

No glossary in this chapter. Woot!

* * *

**FAQ Time:**

**_Why did Mirani reply the way she did to Sasuke? Isn't that still cliché?_**

_Why yes, yes it is. But the reasons she replied the way she did will appear in the next chapter as she continues to reflect on it, as well as the repercussions.__ I believe it will be different than most clichés.

* * *

_

I've noticed that some of my usual reviewers have...disappeared. This makes me worry...if I'm doing something wrong please let me know! Thank you for those that have stuck with me, and please welcome aboard our newest reader, SasuBuns! (Btw I _love_ that name... xD) I forgot to mention that we reached the 50 review mark, so...YAY! Thank you all! I'd give you all cookies but I can't bake to save my life, lol. Anyways, the point of this A/N is to grovel at the feet of my readers and beg for reviews (cause reviews are drugs to writers...like catnip for cats...). ^^

_So pretty please review! :)_


	18. Third Exam: An Agonizing Disruption

**A/N:** I'm ALIVE! (gasp). I am SO SORRY for not updating in so long! *Pulls out super long list of excuses* You wouldn't believe how much schoolwork I had to make up when I got back! I am SO GLAD this is my last year.

Anyways, sadly, this chapter is a little shorter than normal. I know, I know, such a long wait and all you get is this. This chapter was _hard_ to write. Very hard. 'Nough said.

Now, I know I'm updating on a Monday. (Les Gasp!) Therefore, the next chapter should be up on Saturday, since it is not as hard to write, lol. Little timeline for you readers: the next chapter is the last chapter before the timeskip. Chapter 20 will probably be super long, as I am combining all three years of the timeskip into one chapter. (Seriously...who wants three updates of fillers?) After that, I estimate twenty more chapters before the end.

* * *

**Disclaimer/Claimer:** I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own the characters Mirani and Ilki, as they have previously been copyrighted to me by a friend who borrowed them for her privately published book. So yay, I own something!

Glossary at end of the chappie.

* * *

Training was supposed to be productive, not...awkward. At least, that was what Mirani thought, but she was starting to think that perhaps her logic was flawed. Doctor Sotaru had advised for her to only do light taijutsu until her chakra network was fully grown, and it was the easiest training to ease her out of her comatose state. Naturally, she asked her team for help.

All of them took shifts training her in different styles, and usually, the sessions went well. It was the sessions with Hideaki that normally made things awkward. Ever since their little conversation in Aru's apartment, she had believed that their friendly relationship would no longer have problems. Yet, experience should have taught her differently, that everything only became worse – at least, in her point of view.

Lately, her sparring sessions tended to have "moments" in them. Her current predicament happened to be one of those reoccurring "moments". The boy had caught one of her kicks, knocking her off-balance. Human reflexes then kicked in, and she had blindly reached out to grab something to steady herself. That "something" happened to be her teammate, who tumbled down to the ground with her. Now she was stuck in a rather inappropriate position:one of his legs was in-between hers, his hands were on either side of her head, and he was _very_ close to her.

It was situations like these that made her realize that she longed to be touched, cared for. While she harbored no serious intimate feelings for Hideaki, she could not deny that he stirred said feelings. She knew anything that she felt was simply a feeling of convenience; though she appeared twelve, she had the mind of a young adult, one that craved the attention of the opposite sex. Such closeness with someone, anyone of the male gender, would stir these feelings. It was with these thoughts that she looked away from the confused teammate – she refused to view him in that light, nevertheless use him.

"Get off me," she mumbled.

"What?" He shook his head slightly, as if snapping out of a daze. "I can't hear you."

"Off. Now." Her voice gained strength as she pushed her thoughts away to the dark corners of her mind.

"R-Right."

Hideaki pushed himself up and held out a hand, which she glared at. As she got up with a look that said "I can do this myself.", Aru wandered over from her observation spot.

"It's getting late," she said, crossing her arms. "Time to go."

Nodding, Mirani gave her teammate a wave. "See ya."

He returned the wave, albeit it seemed to be a halfhearted effort. Inwardly shrugging it off, she followed her sensei beck to her apartment.

The walk was silent, and she repressed a groan. Aru was not the talkative type, something she had learned in the few weeks she spent living with her. It seemed she only talked when she deemed necessary, and that was not often. The silence was comfortable between them, however, although it occasionally seemed strained.

Unfortunately, silence meant more time to think, to ponder her other troubles. With the final round of the Chūnin Exams coming up, she found herself dreading what would happen. 'I'm still not used to killing,' she thought, staring at her hands, 'or seeing death. To defend Konoha...' She clenched her hists to stop them from shaking.

The final round marked a huge change in the village, too, she knew. Sarutobi Hiruzen would die – a fact she somehow knew hat her outline would not change. It was a sad fact; the old man had been a decent character. 'But his death is necessary...so many people and things would change otherwise, and probably wouldn't be for the best.' It was an ironic and sad thought.

That thought, however, reminded her that the time-skip was coming. It was a blank, undeveloped space that even she had left empty when she was writing. She knew nothing of what would happen to her and Ilki. 'Everyone else I know, relatively, but I don't have any clue for us. How reassuring.' Her face twisted into a scowl, and she glared at nothing in particular.

"One of these days, your face is going to permanently stay like that," Aru said suddenly.

She glanced up, and swore she saw a dark cloud over her head. "Let me think in peace, Aru-sensei."

"Always thinking about something all serious-like."

And that was that. The Inuzuka never asked what she was thinking about, and for that, Mirani was grateful. She was already living a lie; she did not want to continue the habit on pety things. Her mind wandered back to the future, where she found yet another problem: Uchiha Sasuke.

He was supposed to run off soon and supposedly break his bonds with everyone. She had been thinking about that for a while now, how it would affect her plans of the few things she wanted change. Yet she had also come to the conclusion that it would be how she would be free from their "agreement," which for her, was not a con. 'If he cuts all bonds, that includes me. But then, there goes my opportunity to possible affect anything bad in the future. All that trust gaining and patience gone to waste. Even getting him to talk to me in full sentence _and_ about his family...but do I really want to keep the bond that ties me to his ambitions?'

It had been two weeks since that particular incident in the hospital, giving her plenty of time for her OCD mind to pick apart the conversation. She had decided, after much internal arguing, that she was stupid. 'I should have stayed silent! But _no_, instead I try to be different and I failed instead. I am such an _idiot_!' Pursing her lips in frustration, she forced her thoughts elsewhere.

–

"It reeks of dog here."

The two-tailed cat wrapped said tails around herself as she glared at random objects in Aru's apartment. Ilki sighed as she closed the window, her own nose twitching slightly at the scent. The moment they reached the Inuzuka compound, they could smell it – and the dogs could smell them. Getting to Aru's apartment was like going through Hell, and even then they had to find an unconventional way inside since the land lady would not let them in the complex.

"Why couldn't we just visit Mirani at the park, or a training ground?" Nibi continued.

"Because this isn't something I want to talk about in public."

She sat down on the sofa, eying the pile of library books sprawled out on the floor nearby. Her attention was abruptly drawn to the door when she heard the knob turning.

"Konbanwa!" Barely dodging the kunai Aru sent in her direction, she frowned. "Hey! It's just me!"

Aru shrugged and walked into another room, but seemed to be grumbling something about sneaky cats. Her friend sighed and joined her on the sofa, giving Nibi a pet in greeting.

"Why are you here this late?" she asked, curling up in corner of the furniture.

"Nibi and I were talking 'bout the whole chakra network thing," Ilki said. "I was wondering why she didn't sense it before. So we've come up with a theory."

"Oh?" Her friend seemed more interested, and picked up her head slightly to watch them.

"When I found out, I was shocked," the cat admitted, jumping up onto the sofa in-between them. "But, I realized that it made sense to why using my chakra caused such transformations as my host's cat ears. When I would sense her strong emotions and her unconscious tugging at my power, and I would give it to her, it was going through her veins. Being that blood flows to the brain, I sensed her emotions through my chakra stronger than I normally would have. Then, by giving her too much of my chakra, it affected her through her blood instead of chakra network. The result is her cat ears, which did not come about because of a seal weakening."

"Tell her about your memories, too," she said, poking her.

"I was getting to that, kitten. Now, because I could send her my chakra, I never did any investigating into her chakra system. I just assumed she had a system that was naturally good at channeling. Yet, I wondered why I had never noticed this before. Ilki doesn't let me into her thoughts" – she shot her a look – "so I didn't have her story. But when I went back into my memories, I discovered something…disturbing. I have no memories of before you two arrived in Konoha."

"No…memories…?" Mirani shot her a surprised look.

"None. I feel like I've been sleeping for a long time, and that I've missed something big. Kitten won't tell me anything though." If cats could pout, Nibi would be doing so.

"Is that so…" Her friend sat up fully and furrowed her eyebrows in thought.

Ilki knew she was probably thinking back to the series, and she had a rough idea of what her thought process would be. She had already gone through the same process, and had come to the conclusion that the Nibi had been whisked away from Yugito when they fell in and changed the series, and probably had her memories erased by the "all powerful outline."

'We try so hard to follow things, and we still fail, epically,' she thought in irritation. 'At least Nibi can't read my thoughts. That would be so bad…'

–

Ilki and Nibi's revelation kept Mirani up for most of the night. It was disturbing to find out what she did, and she had difficulty wrapping her mind around it. 'I never meant for any of this to happen,' she thought as she got ready the next morning. Aru had made another "permanent scowl" remark, but it had gone unnoticed by her. 'This whole experience seemed awesome at first, but now it's getting more and more complicated.'

There was no way around the fact that, despite all their efforts, they had failed in trying to not majorly change the world early in the series. 'This doesn't bode well for my plans later,' she thought in irritation. 'And looking at what's happening now, I'm starting to wonder what happened back on Earth. Did we screw anything up there?'

"If we wanna make it on time to the final round, ya gotta be ready in the next five minutes," Aru said, passing by the bathroom.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming."

Distractedly, she put on her jacket and followed her sensei out the apartment. The village was abuzz with excitement as people hurried to the arena – at least, those who were lucky enough to get seats. It was something to distract herself with, so she turned to one of her favorite pastimes: people watching. At some point, Ilki, Hideaki, and Norio joined her and Aru, and her friend began to join her in people watching. Their snide comments went unheard by their victims, luckily.

"So, about the whole thing from yesterday…" Ilki murmured when they ran out of people.

She sighed. "I have no idea what to do."

"…crap. I was thinking you would."

Chewing on her lip, she said, "All I can say is, surprisingly, to take your normal approach to life. Take it as it comes…things are different than they 'should' have been."

"Oi, you guys coming or not?" Nibi asked, turning back to them; they had fallen behind the group.

Ilki sneezed and grumbled, "Shuddup."

Making their way to the seating part of the arena, they found that their seats were near the other Konoha genin that were present. After saying their hellos, they sat down and waited for the main event. 'We can enjoy the first few fights, at least,' Mirani thought as she leaned back in her chair.

"Thank you, everyone, for coming to the Konohagakure no Sato Chūnin Selection Exam!" the Hokage said when all the contestants had arrived – minus Sasuke. "We will now start the main tournament matches!"

The fights were not disappointing.

–

Ilki sat on the edge of her seat, cheering wildly for Naruto as he fought Hyūga Neji.

"In your face, Ino!" She glanced behind her at the blond and her old teammate, the pinkette. "I told you he'd beat that guy!"

The fight had been even more intense than it had been on TV, and she had loved every bit of it. 'I can't believe we're here!' she thought, forgetting about the inevitable ending to the arc. 'This is freaking amazing!' She bounced up and down in her seat, waiting for the next match. Kankurō forfeited against Aburame Shino, and with Sasuke not there, the next match was against Nara Shikamaru and Temari.

"…was I this loud?" she asked Mirani as she winced from Ino's screaming.

"Yes."

"Heh…sorry," she said with an apologetic smile.

Hideaki leaned towards them. "Konoha has impressive shinobi. This Nara guy is an amazing strategist."

"Which is why he just forfeited," her friend deadpanned as she leaned back in her chair.

After enduring several seconds of the blond banshee's loud words of disbelief, they were given a respite. 'There's one fight left that was shown,' she thought as she looked around the arena. 'As long as Kakashi isn't _too_ late.' After a few moments, people started wondering why the next fight was not starting.

_"What about the next fight?"_

_"Where's the Uchiha?"_

They were not kept waiting too much longer, as Kakashi and the Uchiha appeared in a swirl of leaves.

"'bout dang time," her friend muttered as she closed her eyes.

'She's worried,' Ilki thought as she spared a glance at her. 'And to be honest, so am I.' Nibi nudged her hand, and she looked down to see the cat giving her a worried look.

"I'm fine," she said quietly.

"D-Do you think Sasuke-kun's going to be okay fighting that guy?" Sakura leaned forward to their row.

She snorted. "Have faith in your crush, Sakura."

The pinkette turned a vibrant shade of red and Ino laughed. "She got you good there, Forehead."

"Shut up, Pig!"

The fight was about to start, so she shushed them and watched the arena floor in interest. Gaara had already transported down to the floor, and she could pick up the bloodlust radiating of him from her seat. The two-tails growled lowly on her lap in response to the Ichibi.

"You gonna be okay?" Mirani whispered, opening her eyes to reveal concern.

"Yeah," she muttered in reply, glaring at the cat. "She seems to have some issues with the Ichibi."

"Oh?"

She never got to elaborate, as Kakashi had appeared nearby and Gai had started talking loudly to him. For a moment, she wondered what was going on, and then remembered that the two had a one-sided rivalry that had stemmed from years ago. 'Weird people.'

Her attention was abruptly drawn to the intense battle down in the arena. Around her, people sat on the edges of their seats, enthralled with the fight between two powerful genin. Sasuke had increased in speed drastically, enough that Gaara's sand defense could not keep up with him. Repeatedly, he hit the sand armor with a speed that rivaled Rock Lee's.

Eventually, Gaara used his sand to encase him in a sphere. Spikes shot out when Sasuke attempted to hit him, which left one of the few jutsu she was dying to see. 'I missed it in the Nami no Kuni…' she thought as she held her breath. 'But now…' In her anticipation, she ignored a shouting Naruto behind her about how Kakashi should end the fight.

A chirping sound filled the arena as the Uchiha performed Kakashi's only original jutsu, the Chidori. The bright flash of bluish light pierced through the sand sphere, eliciting a cry from the Jinchūriki.

"_Blood…my blood_!"

Suddenly, she felt very drowsy.

–

"Genjutsu," Mirani hissed as she fluctuated her chakra to prevent the sleeping jutsu from affecting her.

Next to her, Norio released Hideaki, who had succumbed to it. She glanced to her other side, and saw that Ilki was passed out on her chair, snoring soundly. Unfortunately, the cat on her lap was fluffed and hissing vehemently.

"What's wrong with her?" Aru asked, hurrying over from her seat at the end of the row.

"The _Ichibi no Shukaku_ is here," Nibi growled, tails flicking back and forth as she glared at the redhead in the arena.

An explosion interrupted them, causing the shinobi who had dispelled the genjutsu to look up to where the Hokage and the visiting Kazekage had been sitting. There was only a smoke cloud, clearing slowly to reveal the Kazekage with a kunai to the Hokage's neck. ANBU came running, but were interrupted by a strange box-like wall of purple.

She cursed. "It's starting."

Luckily, no one heard her in the confusion, and she resumed releasing Ilki from the genjutsu. Her friend started, shaking her head as she tried to clear her head. The Nibi tumbled from her lap, yet she held her glare at the arena as Temari, Kankurō, and their sensei Baki jumped down.

"W-What's going on?" Ilki asked, rubbing her temples.

"The Oto-nin started attacking," she muttered as she spun around. "Where'd the Nibi go?"

"The Nibi?" Hideaki and Norio repeated, alarmed.

Ignoring them, she saw the cat stalking towards the bottom floor of the arena. "Aru-sensei, Kaka-sensei, we got a problem!"

Kakashi, who had experienced Ilki and her bijū before, whirled from the shinobi he was fighting. "Aru, stop that cat!"

Ilki finally seemed to be feeling the side effects of her enraged companion, and fell to the ground clutching her head. Cursing again with the vocabulary of a sailor, Mirani knelt down next to her and tried to soothe her.

"We need to get her out of here," she said as she glanced up at Hideaki and Norio. "Aru-sensei can keep Nibi busy until we get her far enough away that the cat has no choice but to dispel herself."

Still dazed from the Nibi revelation, Hideaki merely nodded as Norio stepped forward and picked up the whimpering Jinchūriki. Before they left, she spared a glance around the arena one last time. The Hokage was fighting the revealed Orochimaru, while the capable shinobi were fighting the Oto forces. Baki was fighting the proctor for the third exam, Shiranui Genma. 'That's right, Gekkō Hayate died because he overheard plans from the Suna nin,' she thought. Sasuke was gone, presumably chasing after Gaara – which meant the rest of his team would soon be following.

"We have to go," Norio prompted as he sprung forward.

Shaking her head, she followed.

And regretted it a few seconds later.

Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei was only supposed to summon the Shodai, Nidaime, and Yondaime Hokage. According to the series, the Yondaime summoning would fail, and Sarutobi Hiruzen would only have to fight the first two. Nothing had ever been said what happened to the third body that, at the point the jutsu was currently at, had to be used to bring a person back. Mirani was starting to wish the series had.

"A pity the third one didn't summon." Orochimaru's voice filtered down to her, seemingly unaffected by the sounds of battle around her. "Oh well, I suppose I'll use it to keep my other interest…busy…until I can pay her sufficient attention."

Her head spun towards the battle on top off the arena, away from the people running in front of her. Orochimaru was grinning sadistically at her, enough to send shivers up her spine and make her want to play ostrich by sticking her head in the ground to avoid him.

"Leave the girl alone." The Hokage's voice, unlike his former pupil's, barely reached her ears over the din of the battle.

"What the-?" Hideaki's voice brought her back to her current situation, and she stopped short as she saw one of the coffins Orochimaru had used before break through the ground in front of them.

"You have got to be kidding me!" she hissed under her breath as she skidded to a stop.

"What is this?" Norio asked, sparing a glance at her. "You know of it?"

"N-No," she quickly lied, mentally slapping herself for doing so. "But we can't take any distractions right now. We gotta get Ilki out of here!"

The coffin door slid open slowly, and some sort of morbid curiosity and stupidity kept her rooted to the spot instead of making her attempt to run away. A figure stumbled out, one feminine in shape. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, trying to think of whom Orochimaru could have summoned that was female.

Sunlight lit up the figure, shedding light on her features. Black hair framed her face, and ice blue eyes contrasted nicely against tan skin. Mirani's eyes widened as she took in the figure, unknowingly mirroring Norio and Hideaki's. 'I…I _know_ this person,' she thought as she felt a headache coming on. 'This...feeling, it's recognition of someone close to me…someone that's _family_, and close family. Someone who I haven't seen in _forever_. W-Who is this?' Only one word could be torn from her throat.

"_Mom_…"

The figure started, her attention drawn to the authoress. Yet Mirani was too busy in her thoughts to notice, trying to convince herself that this was not her "real" mother. 'My real mom is home on Earth, not a dead kunoichi in a fictional world. She isn't a killing machine, no…she's a lovable person who spends her time with her family, cat, or she naps! This…this can't be real!'

"You've grown, musume." Her eyes flicked to her companions. "Hideaki…Norio. I…I'm sorry about everything. I never meant…you, you and Eiji knew I never meant to…"

"Misaki…" The jōnin almost dropped the girl in his arms. "You…you died…"

"Edo Tensei," the woman said flatly. "I never thought he'd complete it." She took a deep breath. "I-I'm going to have to fight you."

"Kā-san." Mirani whimpered, clutching her head as her life in the Naruto world attempted to push fictitious memories into her real world memories. "You…you're not real! This…this isn't…"

Misaki clenched her hands. "I never wanted you to see me like this. When Getsumeigakure fell, I-I fought like the kunoichi I was for them…but now, now you'll know the truth, if that snake hasn't told you already."

Her body jerked suddenly, effectively ending the conversation. The earth underneath them rumbled, telling them she was a doton user. A wave of kunai and shuriken met them when they jumped in the air, giving them several scratches.

"Norio-oji, you have to get Ilki out of here," Mirani said as they landed, her rational mind pushing her thoughts away and going into battle-mode. "If the Nibi transforms, we're screwed."

"But…" He glanced at Misaki, who was walking towards them in short, clipped steps.

"We will _die_ if she goes on a rampage!"

"I'll stay with her." Hideaki stepped towards her, and she nodded in agreement.

Norio glanced between the two before sighing. "Just…be careful."

After jumping away, the two genin turned back to the woman who was going through more hand signs. The earth rumbled again, and a column of it started to rise. One end shaped itself into the head of a dragon before speeding towards them. They barely managed to jump away before the dragon smashed into the spot they had just been standing in, shattering the earth around it.

"I can't use ninjutsu, Hideaki," Mirani said with a curse, remembering that her chakra system had not yet fully formed. "You'll have to do the attacks yourself while I work with taijutsu."

"That puts us in a bad position."

"Yes, yes it does."

It was too late to call back Norio; she started to regret her rash decision. 'I shoulda taken Ilki,' she thought as she dodged another wave of weapons. 'Why…_why_ did I stay?' The answer was easy, though it was one she would rather ignore. She wanted to know why she felt such a bond with the Misaki woman, her so-called mother. 'It feels so _real_, like she really _is_ my mother…'

Her thoughts distracted her, and between that and the skill difference, Misaki easily sent her to the ground. A kunai hit the ground next to her neck, but she winced anyways. Hideaki ran towards the woman, distracting her from injuring her enough that Orochimaru or one of his lackeys could take her away.

"What are you just laying there for?" he growled as performed one of the Meiousei part of the Taiyoukei Hakkei in an attempt to stall their opponent. "There's a kunai right next to you!"

Jumping up, albeit a bit shakily, she grabbed said kunai and charged, but was pushed away by a wall of dirt. Misaki turned back to her, sending another earth dragon bullet at her. Channeling chakra to her feet, she jumped up and ran up the jutsu, aiming the kunai for her mother. Yet just as she reached her, part of her made her recoil and jump away.

"What the heck, Mirani?" Hideaki half-shouted as he dodged a similar dragon bullet.

"I…I can't hurt her! I just _can't_!"

Her hands shook slightly as she stared at Misaki. It was undeniable: the bond she felt with this woman was the same as she felt with her mother on Earth. The startling realization that, at that point, Misaki _was_ her mother in the Naruto world while her other mother was simply _less_ hit her hard. 'And it doesn't matter,' the sardonic side of her mind whispered to her. 'Even if you _could_ hurt her, you know Edo Tensei victims cannot be damaged physically.'

"M-Musume…" Her voice came out as a croak. "Gomenasai…"

"Just…just stop this! I can't take this anymore!" For the first time in years, Mirani was on the threshold of throwing a temper tantrum. "I shouldn't be feeling these emotions! This isn't…" She bit her lip, effectively stopping herself from saying that the situation was not real – it very well was.

"I can't stop," Misaki said as her hand jerkily threw more weapons in her direction.

"Yes, yes you can!" Her mind was working furiously now, trying to remember the few ways Edo Tensei could be dispelled. 'Anything to get rid of this…this _feeling_!' One word popped into her mind: closure. She decided to go with it. "Stop blaming yourself for what happened! We…we've forgiven you – what happened wasn't all your fault. You _tried_, you tried so _hard_ to free yourself from him, and no one can fault you for that!"

"I'm…forgiven?" Her movements stopped.

"_Yes_!" Mirani whirled on her teammate. "Tell her! Tell her that we've forgiven her!"

Hideaki blinked rapidly, trying to figure out what was going on before turning to the woman. "We have…the survivors, those who died…they all gave themselves to protect one of their own."

A ghost of a smile crossed Misaki's face. "Thank you…" As she flaked into pieces of earth that fell to the ground, the genin watched in surprise.

"How did you…?" Hideaki asked, turning to her.

"I just…I wanted it to go away…" She clutched her head, feeling a huge headache coming on. "I thought talking might work…you never know…"

The worst part was that the feeling did not go away. 'What's happening to me? Feeling this way – it doesn't bode well for Earth…' Around her, the rest of the battle for Konoha raged, completely oblivious to her current situation – _and thankfully it's going the way it should._

_

* * *

_**Glossary:**

_General:_

Musume – "daughter".

Kā-san – mother.

_Jutsu:_

Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei – Summoning: Impure World Resurrection.

Jutsu used by Misaki, in order of appearance: Doton: Chikyū shindō pāmu [Earth Release: Earth Shaking Palm]; Doton: Dosenkiryū [Earth Release: Earth Dragon]; Doton: Doryūha [Earth Release: Earth Flow Wave].

_Review please, and tell me if you like this chapter! (Cause this was **really** hard to write...)_


	19. Quiet Turmoil

**A/N:** Okay, so I lied. This took a lot more time to write for several reasons. One: I ended up having plans for the weekend last minute. Two: The past week has most likely been one of the most emotionally stressful weeks in my life. Three: Because of lack of sleep, I've pretty much been sleeping everyday after school. The fact that I'm up right now is a miracle.

I took out my issues on this chapter. Enjoy.

* * *

**Important: **Do NOT expect another chapter for AT LEAST another week. The next chapter is gonna be a combined filler with the time skip, instead of three separate chapters. I estimate at this point that it should be about 15,000 words, and that is going to take me a long time to write.

* * *

**Disclaimer/Claimer:** I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own the characters Mirani and Ilki, as they have previously been copyrighted to me by a friend who borrowed them for her privately published book. So yay, I own something!

Glossary at end of the chappie.

* * *

While Otogakure and Sunagakure had physically suffered more losses than Konoha had, nothing could compare to losing the Sandaime Hokage. Even the destruction of the village was not as bad, though it had significantly weakened the village's defenses. Yet everyone put down what they were doing to restore their home to attend the funeral of Sarutobi Hiruzen.

The air was thick with sadness, and the weather befitted the occasion. Dark clouds hung in the sky, and the occasional cold drizzle made it uncomfortable. Ilki huddled under her black coat, chilled to the bone, but determined to pay her respects. Despite his faults, as any human had, she deeply respected the Sandaime's character.

On her left side stood the members of team seven, with Naruto directly next to her. The blond was trying his hardest not to cry, but tears mingled with the raindrops on his face. 'The Sandaime had been kind to him, like the family he never had,' she remembered. 'He's probably taking it as hard as the family is.'

Her gaze flicked to her right side, where her other team stood. Mirani was next to her, with a numb expression and a faraway look in her eyes. She mirrored most people present in her disposition, as if she was just too shocked about the Hokage's death. Yet, Ilki knew her, knew her expressions; her friend was miles away in thought, thinking about something else depressing.

She had managed to get a little bit of the story of what happened while she was battling her subconscious bijū. The series's deviation and summoning of her friend's so-called mother had surprised her. So had the fervor with which Mirani had spoken with when describing the emotions going throuhg her mind. 'She's either going to go crazy, or she's onto something with her theory about our real home.'

Pushing her thoughts away, she attempted to focus on the present. It was her turn to approach the memorial stone and say her piece, though she was not quite sure of what she wanted to say. Frowning, she placed a hand the cold, wet stone.

"I'm sorry," she whispered in a tone that no one else could hear, "that we didn't try to stop this. You were a great character."

After standing there for a moment longer, she turned and walked back to her friends. 'Things aren't gonna be easy anymore.'

–

Life had, albeit slowly, begun to go back to normal. Construction on the village progressed at a good pace, and the sannin Jiraiya was about to take Naruto to search for the woman who would become to Godaime, Tsunade. Despite everything seeming well, Mirani found herself still residing under a black cloud of depression. The feeling from before, that strange tie to a family she did not really have, had never left. 'Such a strange feeling,' she thought as she walked the streets of the village.

For days now, she had been mulling over the possibilities of why she was still feeling a mother-daughter bond to the dead woman she had inexplicably cried over. Her final conclusion came after she had meticulously went through every scrap of logic she had left.

The reason she felt, she decided, was because in this world, that was supposed to be her family. As a reinforcement, the outline was forcing those feelings into her mind, so that she would not give away that she was really just an average young adult who had somehow gotten sucked into a fictional universe. Her real family, her flesh and blood, was at home, hopefully doing well, and if she was lucky, would never know about her little escapade. There was no way, _no way_, that she had changed her own life; no, she just now had two lives.

At least, that was what she kept telling herself – because really, there was just no way her outline had screwed up her real life.

With each passing minute of her chanting her new logic in her mind, grasping at it like a life preserver and hoping it would keep her sane, the dark cloud above her seemed to diminish. 'I just have to make sure I keep both lives straight,' she thought as she let a small, relaxed smile cross her face. 'I can't forget either family, but I can't cross my memories. So, I need to learn as much as I can about this "Tahigoto" side of me, and then I won't confuse my ninja family with my normal, civilian family.' Resolving to find a way to talk to Norio and Hideaki about her family without seeming suspicious, she decided she would find them later.

After wandering the village aimlessly for a few hours, helping out people here and there with any damage that made it that far inside, she felt her spirits beginning to rise. She reached the outskirts of the district at one point, finding a nice, non-crowded road.

The street bordered a small river, one just large and deep enough to not be considered a creek. Something about the street irked her, as if there was something going on that she had forgotten. Her answer, however, came in the form of a gentle misting of water on her face, carried by the cool autumn breeze. 'But what would be kicking up water from such a gently flowing river?' she wondered as she looked around her surroundings.

Dark figures contrasted from the light color of the water in the distance, and she squinted her eyes to see what was going on. There were six from what she could make out, with one tinted green. 'Maito Gai, perhaps? What would he...' Her thought train screeched to halt when she picked out a large object, sword-shaped, being swung around. 'This...this is when the Akatsuki make their first appearance!'

Gasping, she ducked into an alleyway, pressing herself against the wall. 'Oh my god.' A part of her mind wanted to go fan-girl at the mostly drop-dead gorgeous S-ranked criminals, while the more developed, rational side of her mind reminded her that they were not nice people. 'Well, nice is an understatement. They'd probably kill me in less than five seconds without batting an eyelash.'

Her happy mood diminished almost instantly as the implications of the Akatsuki being in Konoha set in. 'How the heck could I have actually thought I had found a lull, peace even, with my logic? I _knew_ this was coming up…' The situation's irony made her want to bang her head against a nearby wall.

"What's wrong with you?"

She jumped, startled, and spun around. Ilki was walking towards her, pocky in hand, seemingly spotting her from the main street.

"Keep it down," she hissed, motioning with her hands.

Intrigued, her friend joined her by hugging the wall, too. "What is it?"

"Akatsuki."

Ilki's one hand touched her stomach at the mention of the group, about where the Nibi's seal was. Understanding dawned on Mirani, that the Akatsuki would eventually be after her friend. While they were not yet capturing the bijū, they would be in a few years. '…I am such an idiot to not have thought about that earlier.' There was a possibility that they had not yet learned that Ilki was a Jinchūriki, especially when she remembered that the real reason this particular pair showed up in Konoha was because Uchiha Itachi had "unfinished business" to attend to. Shaking her head slightly, she pushed all thoughts of the Uchiha massacre out of her mind. 'That there is a can of worms I'm not opening yet.'

"We – you – have to leave," she murmured as she grabbed her friend's arm and headed back to the main road.

"No kidding."

–

On Mirani's way back to her shared apartment with Ilki, she was passed by the younger Uchiha. He was wondering if she had seen Kakashi, to which she shook her head. 'And that ball just started rolling,' she thought as she watched him jump away.

She stopped by Aru's apartment on the way home to grab the last few items – books, naturally – that she had left behind. With the threat of Orochimaru gone for the time being, the ANBU had allowed her to move back, something she was grateful for. Aru was a nice person and all, but she was, quite honestly, odd.

With books piled high in her hands, she found herself struggling to find her key to unlock her door. 'I'm a ninja, and I can't get my own keys,' she thought with a mental facepalm. She was surprised when the books were lifted off her arm, and she turned around only to come face to face with Hideaki.

"You read a lot," he commented dryly as he glanced at the stack now in his arms. "Studying genjutsu?"

"It's my weak point." She found her key and unlocked the door, letting them in. "And thanks."

"No problem. Actually, I was looking for you 'cause Norio-sensei wanted to invite you over for dinner tonight. He wanted to run something by you."

Raising an eyebrow, she said, "I guess. What's going on?"

He shook his head, making the motion of zipping his mouth closed.

"…well fine, be like that." Rolling her eyes, she took the books and dropped them with a bang on the kitchen table. "What time, then?"

And that was how she ended up at the apartment the late Hokage gave her uncle and friend that night. Norio had, surprisingly, good cooking skills, and had whipped up a traditional dinner of ichiju-sansai with rice, miso soup, and three okazu. There was sashimi, simmered vegetables, and grilled chicken. With an "Itakadimasu," they started to eat.

"So, I've had contact with Getsugakure," Norio said after a bit of light dinner talk.

"Oh?" She looked up from her food, chopsticks frozen in midair.

"The council needs Hideaki and I to come back," he continued. "To be honest, I was thinking of going back soon anyways. With a new Hokage coming in, I don't know how well us foreign shinobi will be welcomed."

She had to bite her tongue to say that Tsunade probably would not care. "No more Hoshiboshiton training, then? That sucks."

"Well, the council has made an offer." He paused for a moment, and she raised an eyebrow. "They'd like you to come to Getsugakure to continue your training. We've recovered a lot of our clan's old scrolls – you could learn much more than I could teach you here."

Her eyes widened in surprise. "You mean...that's...wow, that would be awesome! I-I've been wanting to learn more about my clan. Ever since..."

With that, she brought up the proverbial elephant in the room. They all quieted, the clinking of chopsticks against dishes ceasing. Curious eyes watched her, and she realized she may have made a blunder. 'Timeline...timeline...what's the timeline?' she wondered as she bit the inside of her lip. 'I was...nine, maybe, when I was supposed to have disappeared into Earth. So I should know about my family, considering I do talk about them occasionally.'

"I had...repressed...a lot of my more traumatic memories," she said quietly, praying they would not see through her lie. "In repressing, I lost most of my specific memories. I have a general idea, obviously, but the specifics are just...gone."

"Are you sure going to Getsu will be a good idea, then?" Hideaki piped up.

"I think...I think I can handle it," she replied, hoping he had not said anything about her "episode" with the reincarnation of her mother. That emotion, now that she had a reasonable – at least in her mind – explanation for everything, would be easy to control.

Norio cleared his throat. "If you would like to come with us, the council has asked us to return home within the next two weeks. They had contacted me before the Chūnin Exams, and I had already asked the late Hokage-sama. You've been cleared to leave with us. I would like to wait to see if the new Hokage will be here soon, though, so we can clear it with him or her. We have about a week before we'd have to leave."

"This opportunity – thank you!" She pushed her finished dinner dishes away and glanced at the clock. "Wow, it got late. Thanks for dinner, but I really gotta go now."

"I'll walk you home," Hideaki offered. When she shot him a look, he rolled his eyes and added, "As friends."

She snorted in an attempt to hide her laughter. "Alright, let's go."

The night was cool, with a cloudless sky. Light from the full moon illuminated the village and their pathway. No one else was outside, at least in the general vicinity. 'Avoid any awkwardness,' she told herself. 'Of course, planning ahead for something that may not happen will make it happen.'

"Do you think Ilki will be mad at you for leaving?" Hideaki asked, breaking the silence.

"Probably," Mirani replied. "Normally we do everything together."

With the thought of her friend's imminent ranting flashing through her mind, she started to feel tired already. Yawning, she brought a hand up to cover her mouth. Something caught her eye, and she pulled her palm away from her mouth to study it. Turning it slightly, her palm caught the moonlight and…it sparkled?

"Who'd you make a promise to?"

She glanced up, startled. "What?"

"That mark, on your palm. It means you made a promise under the full moon, and under the watch of the kami Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto-sama." He shot her a surprised look. "You don't know about that?"

"Enlighten me."

He sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. "It was taught in the Academy back in Getsu, kinda like a history lesson. With our old village best known for its use of the celestial bodies – specifically the moon – it was almost a requirement to learn about that kami and how he ties in to the Tahigoto clan. Anyways, that symbol of a crescent moon on your palm means you made a deal or promise when a full moon was out. Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto-sama watches over your clan, 'cause you guys are closer to him than the other kami. When the moon is full, it's a lot easier for him to watch over 'his children'.

"He values trust, so when he sees a deal or a promise being made, he holds that Tahigoto to it. He takes things very seriously – you know, with the story and all of why day and night are never together. Because he was disgusted at a feast he was representing his sister at, he killed the hostess. So when it comes to these promises and stuff being made, he makes sure those representing him keep it. That's why it was custom for deals, treaties, marriages, and the like to be performed under a full moon in Getsumeigakure. The mark on your hand is the symbol he brands on those who do such a thing, and it's only visible in direct, full moonlight. A reminder, and a way to keep track of you."

"That sounds like a lot of myth," she said, absentmindedly rubbing her palm; she had heard of the kami before, but had never really studied them.

"You've got proof, dontcha?" He pointedly looked at said palm. "Anyways, Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto-sama hates to see that promise broken. So if ya break it, he takes away your ability to control anything celestial. Kinda like 'his house, his rules'."

"And that, that is absurd."

"You're a Tahigoto, so you gotta follow the rules."

She frowned, glaring at her palm. 'I never signed up for this,' she thought in irritation. 'And I don't even know what I promised, or to whom. Really, the only definite promise I made was –' Her thought train screeched to a halt.

"Hideaki, do the promises count even when they're not made in the moonlight?"

"So _now_ you're gonna start believing?"

"…just answer the question."

"Yes. If there's a full moon out, it doesn't matter where you are."

'I'm going to kill that Uchiha.'

–

"You're home late." Ilki blinked when her friend scowled at her. "What, bad date?"

"I will hurt you." She threw her keys down on the table before collapsing onto one of the chairs.

"What's wrong?"

Mirani was silent, and she began to worry. 'She looked okay earlier, better than she had been earlier this week,' she thought with a frown. After a moment, she stood up and walked over to the table. Her friend was silent when she plopped down in a chair, but after a moment, she spoke.

"Just…something was brought to my attention that I wish I never had to know about."

"Anything you want to talk about?"

"Too complicated." She covered her face with her hands for a few seconds, then removed them to reveal a composed expression.

"You scare me when you do that." Ilki shivered.

"I wish I could do it more often. Unfortunately, this front only lasts for so long."

"You're weird."

"Thank you." Mirani sighed and rubbed her temples. "Listen, these is something you need to know."

"An' wassat?"

"…stop slurring your words. It's a very…'home' thing to do." Ilki rolled her eyes, motioning for her friend to continue. "I'm going to be leaving in a week to go to Getsugakure to train. I don't know when I'll be back."

She blinked once, twice, before the words registered in her mind. "You can't leave me! I'll be so lost!"

"I'd really like to take the opportunity," her friend continued, seemingly unperturbed at her outburst. "It's a chance to learn a lot. I think…I'd really like to go."

"After what happened during the final exam? You really think that's a good idea?"

"You weren't there." She looked calm, but the Jinchūriki could see the tightening of her jaw. "I've thought over that, and I know now that I can handle it."

She snorted. "I know you – you think you can take this stuff on, but you can't."

"Trust me."

"You…are crazy." She leaned back in her chair and sighed heavily. "But really...you can't leave me here alone."

"You'll be fine." Mirani stood up. "Now I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow."

She suppressed a groan as her friend walked away. 'This is going to be a long time skip without her,' she thought in irritation. As an afterthought, she directed her thoughts to Nibi and added, 'You are going to train me like there is no tomorrow.'

–

Konoha had a new Hokage by the end of the week. She was one of the legendary sannin, and known for her medical ninjutsu, super strength, and rather abundant chest. (And, well, her lack of gambling skills.) Tsunade had arrived, with her assistant Shizune and pig Ton-ton. Sake sales had skyrocketed.

The blond lady had agreed with the previous Hokage's decision regarding the trip to Getsugakure. Mirani had been told they would be leaving the next day, as it would take a week to get to the Tsuki no Kuni. She had spent the majority of her day packing and returning library books, while dodging a still-pissed Ilki. Only one thing was left on her to-do list, and it was the one she was dreading the most.

One of the first matters of business Tsunade had taken care of when she had become Hokage was to heal Uchiha Sasuke, after he had fought with his brother on the little trip Jiraiya and Naruto had taken. In lieu of recent developments, namely, the annoying promise she had made that had been blown out of proportion, she felt it was necessary to let him know she was leaving for a bit.

Now she stood in front of his hospital room, inwardly kicking herself for getting in the situation in the first place. 'Sometimes, I really hate my life,' she thought as she glowered at the door. 'If I'm lucky, when he leaves, he'll decide he won't need me anymore and the promise will have been broken on his side.' Grumbling to herself, she knocked twice before entering.

He was sitting on his bed, scowling at nothing in particular. Closing the door quietly, she noticed he did not even bother looking up to see who was there. Mentally rolling her eyes, she took a few steps towards him and leaned against the wall.

"I'm gonna make this brief, so I don't interrupt your staring contest with the wall." She crossed her arms, but raised an eyebrow when he actually turned to her. "I'm leaving early tomorrow morning to go train at the village that replaced my home village, Getsugakure. I dunno when I'll be back, so I won't be able to train you anymore. You know the basics of the Hoshiboshiton, though, so if you ever get bored, I'm sure you could come up with a jutsu."

"Hn."

She pushed herself off the wall and turned to leave. "That's all I came here for. See you…whenever, I guess."

"I may not have need for you," he said suddenly, making her freeze and pray that her earlier thoughts were coming true. "I'm weak now, but I _will_ get stronger. And if you're not strong by then, I will have no use for you."

Resisting the urge to hit her head against the wall, since it was her plan to become stronger, she muttered, "Whatever."

Walking out of the hospital, she grumbled to herself. 'Really, if I get strong, as I plan to, then I still have to help him,' she thought. 'But what else would I be going to Getsu for? Idiot…maybe my luck will change and he'll go after Karin or something.'

'…that would be hilarious.'

–

It took a week to get to Getsugakure. The island required them to walk to the edge of the Hi no Kuni, before taking a boat to get to the crescent shaped body of land. While the island was small, it still took a bit to hike through the dense forests to get to the village nestled by the higher mountains.

During the week of travel, Mirani noted that her thirteenth birthday in that world had passed. She figured Ilki either had or would turn thirteen soon, too, as their birthdays had been close together on Earth. 'So, theoretically, we'll be sixteen, if not almost, by the time skip,' she thought as she walked. 'I am so not looking forward to going through puberty again.'

"There it is," Norio said, interrupting her thoughts. He gestured in front of him to what looked to be rocky ruins.

"Erm…where?" she asked, scanning the ruins and wondering if her eyesight was going.

Her uncle formed several hand signs before muttering a "Kai", and the world around them rippled. The protective genjutsu over the village was released for them, and she got her first good look at the village that had replaced her original 'home'. It was moderately sized, with beige-colored buildings and muted-orange rooftops. From where they were standing, a little elevated over the village, she could pick out the dome-shaped, beige building where Norio had said the council was waiting for them.

The older man led them into the village, past the guards who recognized him and let him in. Neither of the two visible guards stopped her, but they did eye her curiously. 'Probably know the Tahigoto survivors, and know I'm not one of the "known" ones,' she thought as she followed her uncle through the streets.

"We're going to stop by the ruling council first, introduce you, and figure out where you'll stay," Norio said as they walked through the bustling streets.

She nodded and followed him to the dome building, where a secretary took their names and motioned for them to wait. A sense of anxiousness hit her, and she realized she was nervous about meeting the council. 'What if, by some odd chance, they think I'm a fake? I mean, it's not like I've offered a lot of proof. Norio and Hideaki believe me, but if the council is an old and stuffy group like it is in Konoha, I'm gonna have my work cut out for me.'

"They are ready for you," the secretary announced after a few minutes, popping into the reception room.

The trio followed the older woman to an office room, where she opened the shōji door. In the center of the room sat two old men and one old woman around one of the short traditional tables, a chabudai. Three of the pillow-like seats, zabuton, had been set out in front of the table, presumably for them. As Mirani sat down on one, she eyed the three councilors watching her like hawks. 'I…suddenly have a very bad feeling about this.'

"So this is the legacy of the eldest son of the main family," the old woman croaked. Her mouth barely moved, as her skin was pulled taut by the bun she had in her white hair. "Tahigoto Mirani."

"Hai," she replied quietly, looking down in respect.

"I am Ajibama Shiori. Next to me on my left is my brother, Ajibama Iwao. To my right is the third councilor, Otaka Yū."

"It's nice to see that you followed our orders this time, Norio," Yū said in a clearer voice, seeming a few years younger than Shiori. "We told you not to go to Konoha, but it seems that it may have worked to our advantage."

Her eyes flashed to her uncle and friend, wondering what was going on. They had never told her the circumstances around their visit – that they apparently had to fight for permission to go, permission they never got.

"While you were gone, we decided that your being in Konoha would work to our advantage." Iwao, who had a pipe, breathed out a small cloud of smoke. "We demand you tell us everything you learned."

"You two were spies?" she hissed, her respect forgotten as she whipped her head around to eye the two next to her. "Is this a trap, then?"

"We were not spies," Norio said steadily, glancing at her briefly. "And we refuse to divulge information, even if we had any. We were merely visitors, observers. There is nothing to learn from us."

"She trained under them," Shiori replied, gesturing at her.

"I won't betray my village." She had folded her hands on her lap when they had first sat down, and now her knuckles were turning white with her grip on her skirt.

"That _village_ is not your home," Iwao told her. "You are now in our lands, your real home. The only reason we did not bring you here when you first resurfaced was because we could not agree on how to do it. However, this place, where your few living relatives are – this is your home. You are loyal to this village now."

"No."

Shiori frowned. "It was not an option."

"Getsugakure needs your help, your information," Yū said, piercing her with an ice-cold look. "This village has been struggling to get back on its feet since Orochimaru destroyed Getsumei. We are no longer the strong village we once were, and the other hidden villages scoff at us. The Chūnin Exams, which you and Tsukino Hideaki participated – you two were the only representation of Getsu. The other villages believe we are weak because of our size, that our shinobi aren't worthy of the title of chūnin. They are wrong. If you help us, we could plan an attack on the other villages, using our strong shinobi to show them we are not to be laughed at. Your knowledge of Konoha would be invaluable."

"You're asking me to betray the village that took me in, trained me, and made me a better person." Mirani leveled them with a glare. "I'd sooner die." _Besides, if they get information out of me, they'll realize I know a lot more than I should_.

"We've already made a decision –" Iwao was interrupted by Norio standing up.

"You can't just decide to declare war, not without the entire council agreeing to it! I'm part of this council, too, along with some of the citizens. We'd never agree to this!"

"You're outnumbered, Norio," Yū replied. "Even the citizens agree to this. We're poor, on the brink of poverty. Our strong shinobi are about to turn to a life of crime if we don't show the other villages what we're capable of."

"Have you ever considered, I dunno, talking?" Hideaki asked, his own respect gone as he jumped to defend the village she believed he had come to love.

"Silence, all of you." Iwao's raspy voice held a tone of power that did not seem to match his frail appearance. "We have already made a deal with an organization to help us. They want something from certain villages, and are willing to help us as long as they get what they want."

"What's gonna stop us if we run from here and tell the world your little plot?" Mirani's hand twitched towards her weapons pouch. "You're just a bunch of old, senile –"

"Did they teach you no respect in that village, brat?" Shiori snapped, slamming her hand down on the table. "The guards already know not to let you out, and we've increased security. Besides, if one of you _does_ manage to get out, your companions will pay for it with their lives."

"We already have plans for all of you," Iwao said. "Norio, you will be busy with the council and training our new recruits. Hideaki and Mirani, you will be training to become our secret weapons against Konoha. Despite your protests, you do hold valuable information, and you _will_ tell us." He looked up at the shōji doors. "Enter."

The door slid open, and she heard footsteps as she continued to protest. "You think you can break us so easily? We won't do your dirty work."

"This one is going to be trouble, un."

She froze as someone approached her from behind. 'That…that ending to the sentence. It couldn't be…these old bats couldn't have possibly teamed up with _them_.' Turning slowly, she was greeted by a slightly feminine-looking blond with blue eyes, bangs covering one of his eyes. '_Deidara_…'

"What do you think, danna?" the blond asked, glancing back at the hunchback man behind him. "If they're too difficult, Leader-sama can take care of them. He wants information on the Kyūbi, un."

Akasuna no Sasori growled something unintelligible, though she doubted she would have understood if he had been louder. The puppet he used for protection garbled his words something fierce. 'My god, if I have to deal with them…I'm gonna have to think fast, come up with fake information, and somehow, _somehow_, warn Konoha. This…this time, my outline has gone too far.'

"Now, these are S-ranked criminals," Iwao continued. "If you want to take your chances with them, you will die. An unfortunate loss on our part." When neither genin move, he smiled like a child at Christmas. "Good. They will train you, and you will tell them any information you have on Konoha."

Shirori smiled sardonically. "Welcome to Getsugakure, Mirani."

–

Life was boring without her best friend, Ilki decided. She was losing her fellow Jinchūriki now, too. Naruto had informed her that day that he was going to go training with Jiraiya while they were eating ramen. The blond wanted to save his best friend, that stupid Uchiha, from Orochimaru.

The day after Mirani had left was when the village lost Sasuke, and she, personally, was glad she had not been chosen for the retrieval mission. It was an arc she had never enjoyed, and she was content to hear the regaling of the battles by those that went on. They all seemed to ignore the subject of Sasuke, whom they failed to bring back, instead putting on a front of sometimes-forced cheerfulness.

Naruto had been depressed for a few days, and she had felt really bad for him. There was nothing she could do but sneak ramen to him when Tsunade was not monitoring his diet as he got better. One day, though, he just rebounded back to his mostly cheery self – right before he had to leave.

Konoha was going to be lonely, especially since she could not even figure out how to contact Mirani. She had tried hiring a messenger bird, but she never got a reply. 'Guess she's just busy,' she figured when the bird returned empty handed. Yet, she could not shake off the feeling that something bad was happening. 'Probably just the fact that Sasuke went to the perverted snake…I mean, who wouldn't get the creeps when thinking about that?'

"Nibi," she said suddenly, pushing her depressing thoughts away. "Let's go train!"

* * *

**Glossary:**

Ichiju-sansai: Roughly translates to one soup, three sides.

Okazu: Side dishes.

Shōji, Chabudai, and Zabuton: I believe I explained them, but google them if you want a visual.

_Review please! :)_


	20. As the Years Pass

A/N: **Yes, this chapter is not yet finished. **...so yes, you may be wondering why I'm posting it. Well, I looked back at my last update date and thought: Well crap, I need to post _something_. So what I have is the first part of chapter twenty.

**NOTE:** This does not mean I will be making three separate chapters. This means I will be updating this chapter as I finish the three parts - so YES, you will have to check back occasionally to see what's going on here.

I felt really bad about not updating, and I really wanted to give you guys something. I hope you like, cuz this took FOREVER. Over 13,000 words for the first part...you better be happy!

**Disclaimer/Claimer:** I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own the characters Mirani and Ilki, as they have previously been copyrighted to me by a friend who borrowed them for her privately published book. So yay, I own something!

**EDITEDITEDIT (Edit 5.24.12):** Sweet baby Jesus. It's been over a year since I updated. Dear god why.

Well, I've been persuaded by some friends to update, now that hectic life is no longer hectic. Longer excuse in next chapter, I suppose.

I will be breaking the fillers up into three separate chapters, now, since I doubt most of my readers regularly check anymore. *sweatdrop*

* * *

**Part One**

* * *

Summers in Konoha were hot. The air was almost always humid, only broken up when a thunderstorm came around. Ilki found herself missing the community pool she had spent most of her summer breaks at, as the village only had hot springs and naturally warmed rivers. She could not even spend her days inside her air-conditioned apartment – no, she had training to do.

It was a particularly humid day, one that practically promised some decent storms in the afternoon, and she dreaded training in it. The shade provided by the trees in the training grounds was useless, so she knew she was in for another day of overheating. She was surprised to see three figures already at her usual ground, seemingly waiting for her. At first she tensed, but then she recognized them.

"We were told we'd find you here," Kakashi said, looking up from his book.

"Stalkers," she muttered good-naturedly, waving at him and the two genin with him. "Sakura, Chōji, long time no see."

"Tsunade-sama is reorganizing the teams for the upcoming Chūnin Exams," the silver-haired jōnin continued, ignoring her sarcasm. "You three are going to be a temporary team so that you can take the exams."

She shrugged, only a little irritated at the choice of her new teammates. "Cool beans. Where is the Exam this time?"

"Shishō said that the order of which village hosts the exam got messed up, so instead of it being in Ame, Suna offered to take care of them." Sakura fiddled with the pair of gloves in her hands. "They said it was a peace offering, after what happened last time."

"Aa." She frowned slightly at the memory, but quickly resumed being her chipper self. "Kaka-sensei, you our leader?"

He did not give her an answer, instead focusing on his book. She sighed, the bit her thumb and went through several seals. Nibi poofed into existence next to her, her presence punctuated by a sneeze from her host.

"So, let's train together and learn teamwork."

Kakashi suddenly snapped his book shut. "I'll see if Tsunade-sama has any missions for tomorrow. I expect exceptional teamwork here."

The jōnin teleported away, and the genin began training.

–

Lightning flashed in the sky, illuminating Getsugakure for the briefest moment. Only a few seconds later, the crack of thunder resonated through the village, shaking window frames and doors. Mirani sat straight up on her thin futon, the shaking of her bedroom window startling her out of her slumber. Instinctively, she reached for one of her hidden weapons, until she recognized the sound of rain beating on the windowpane and the next flash of lightning.

Running a shaking hand through her hair, she put the kunai back in its hidden spot and took a deep breath. The months she had spent in Getsu had taught her to react to the smallest sound, to which she cursed that knowledge. 'Now I'll never get a decent sleep during a storm,' she thought in irritation as she glared at the offending window. 'Not that I was getting a decent sleep in the first place.'

Standing, she walked over to the wall and flipped a switch, illuminating her sparse room. The apartment had been a "gift" from the council, a step up from the jail cell she had been in for the first month she was there. A shiver went down her spine as her mind wandered back to the beginning of the mess that was her "vacation." She still had nightmares about it, similar to the one she had been having before the thunder had woke her up.

Once she started thinking about it, the haunted memories refused to leave her mind. In an attempt to distract herself, she walked over to the small pile of family scrolls that were delivered on a weekly basis and tried to lose herself in the jutsu they contained. It failed, horribly.

She had always been used to reading fan fiction where the author focused on the humane side of the Akatsuki members. After all, they were humans (well, minus the immortal twins), but she rather quickly learned that S-ranked criminals killed their emotions. They were not infamous criminals for nothing.

Interrogation by Deidara and Sasori had been, for lack of better words, torturous. She had never experienced anything similar back on Earth, where she had lived a sheltered life. Sure, there was always the thought of the governments using weapons of mass destruction on each other, but she had never been directly in danger. Here, they had many ways to directly hurt her. She was sure she had several new scars to prove it.

At some point, after they used a genjutsu to make her think they had actually injured her, only to wake up and find that they had inflicted some real, bloody damage, she cracked. Or, she made them think she cracked. There was no way she would ever tell them what she really knew; she had made that resolve a long time ago. Instead, she acted like a blubbering genin who really did not know much about the ninja world yet. She had wasted their time telling them about how her apartment was overpriced, despite the view of the Hokage Mountain, and how Ichiraku definitely had the best ramen. The training grounds were always so expensive to rent, the librarian hated when she tried to check out more than seven books, and the Academy was too far away, she had added.

They had been mad with her useless information, especially after several punches later; she told them she knew nothing about the "Kyūbi brat," only that the villagers often mentioned a monster. She was lucky they never used a truth serum, instead content to beat her, Hideaki, and Norio up. Hideaki was lucky – he legitimately knew no village secrets. Norio had only been a visitor, and had never been given clearance to do much, so he had been in the same boat as her friend.

While the Akatsuki were mad, the council found a way to placate them. Ame, with Pein being the current kage there, had been funding Getsu, and the three old councilors did not want to lose that. They pulled out a long speech of how them breaking was a sign that they would be more cooperative, and maybe, just maybe, they could then be trusted to infiltrate Konoha again for more information. Mirani, Hideaki, and Norio seemed to be the sacrificial lambs for the village, a label she was not pleased with.

As a gift for cooperating, albeit it took some time, the three had been given living arrangements. Deidara and Sasori kept an eye on them, though, believing that they could try something in the future. It was not hard, as the two Akatsuki members had decided to train her and Hideaki for their future infiltration mission. She never saw him anymore, her days now filled with training by Sasori. It was training she detested – she had never asked to be taught by them, and they were horrible teachers.

Her right hand absentmindedly traced the scar on her other hand, a small line from when a kunai had been shoved through it. Sasori had given her that wound, she remembered, and frowned. 'I can't believe I'm training with him,' she thought. 'I really, _really_ have to get out of here.'

–

"Sooooo?" Ilki rocked back and forth on her heels, eying her sensei with irritation. "Where are we going?"

Kakashi ignored her, instead turning a page in his book. Her eye twitched, an action mirrored by the pinkette next to her.

"Kaka-sensei!" Sakura half-shouted in her banshee voice. "Put the smut away and tell us about our mission!"

The book lowered slightly as the man looked at her with one shocked eye. "Where'd all the respect go?"

An ear twitched on her head, and she idly wondered how well she would fare if she went against the higher-ranked ninja. 'No…Nibi hasn't taught me enough yet,' she thought with a frown. 'Drat.'

"In preparation for the Exam, Suna has requested supplies that are hard to find during their drought season. Konoha has offered water, and we are to guard the transport. This is a C-rank mission."

"Yatta!" She grinned at her new team. "I haven't had a C-rank in forever!"

Sakura shook her head, but she still smiled. "You're so similar to Naruto, it's scary."

Their sensei coughed. "We're supposed to be ready to travel in the next two hours. Remember that the trip to Suna takes three days, so pack accordingly."

Nodding, the three genin disappeared to go get ready. The Jinchūriki bounded back to her apartment, now half empty, and quickly threw some clothes into a summoning scroll. It never occurred to her that packing black clothes for a desert trip was a bad idea.

They met at the gates of Konoha, where several men were already waiting with a large covered cart. After a few moments of introduction to men whose names she would probably never remember, they started their long, three day trek to Sunagakure no Sato.

–

"Weak."

Mirani looked up from her spot on the ground and resisted the urge to glare at her "sensei," the puppet in a puppet. If there was one specific thing she had learned, it was to keep up her emotionless façade for a lot longer than she used to be able to do. She was afraid that if she let it drop, if she let herself feel too much emotion, that she would fall apart at the seams.

"The toxin on my puppet's tail was a neurotoxin, which is now seeping into your body via that wound on your back." Sasori turned to leave. "As punishment, you will suffer the paralysis before I send someone with the antidote."

Her expression may have been expressionless, but her eyes were filled with hate as she watched him leave the training grounds. Once he was gone, though, she let a spasm of pain cross her face as she felt the neurotoxin settle in. Sasori had cut a deep gash across her back; one she was sure would cause a good deal of pain until it was healed. 'Stupid S-ranked criminal,' she thought as she struggled to move. 'I can't land a hit on him, can barely defend myself for more than five minutes – and even then I get serious wounds. I'm still bad with the poisons he's hell-bent on teaching me to use…it's amazing I'm still alive.'

–

The team had been warned that the next desert town they would be passing was full of runaway criminals and bandits, and that an attack would be likely. Ilki had summoned the Nibi while the rest of the team had gone on alert. 'Heh, it would be nice if they were just bandits,' she thought as she automatically scanned the area. 'But, it would be fun if they were more skilled.'

Just as the caravan passed the town, they reached inconveniently placed dunes. She glanced at the rest of the team, and noticed that they were keeping an eye on the dunes, too. The sun was high in the sky, so there was no way they could miss someone moving.

Nibi's nose twitched and she swished her tails to the right. The Jinchūriki glanced at Kakashi, who nodded. With his permission, she swiftly threw three kunai in the air, followed by another three to angle the previous ones. They collided with a _clang_, glinting in the sunlight as they went. Several shadows jumped out from behind the dunes, appearing before the caravan with brandished weapons.

"Such an obvious attacked would never hit us!" one of the three men said, waving his sword in the air slightly.

"That wasn't the point," she replied with a smirk, happy they finally had some action – albeit the bandits did not seem like the sharpest kunai in the pouch. Her fun, however, was cut short when the three bandits suddenly found themselves neck deep in sand. "Hey…who's ruining my fun?"

Kakashi, who, as soon as he had seen who they were being attacked by, had pulled out his book again, did not deign to reply, while Chōji shrugged. Sakura, however, had managed to spot who it was from her position, and gestured towards someone blocked by a dune.

"Oi…who just ruined my fun?" She twirled a kunai in her hand, glaring at the dune.

As she finished speaking, another three figures appeared. She blinked as she recognized the three "Sand Siblings" walking towards them. 'But…why are they here?' she wondered. 'Well, besides the fact that this is their country.'

"Aa…I guess I forgot to mention that some Suna reinforcements would be meeting us," Kakashi said, turning a page in his book.

"We would have met you at the border, but it seems you made better time than we expected." Temari adjusted the fan on her back. "And we've been running into bandits left and right who are after the caravans."

The conversation was interrupted by the increasing volume of Nibi's hisses. Not for the first time, Ilki thanked her lucky stars that she had taught her previously how to construct an emotional wall between their minds. She did not want to be feeling the anger now radiating from the tiny black cat. With a frown, she turned and glared at the bijū.

"You be nice to the Ichibi," she said, shaking a finger at her. "Ever since Naruto used his therapy jutsu on Gaara during the last exam, he claims he's different."

"Ahh…now I remember where I saw you," Kankurō mused.

"Well, that, and that time you guys tried to kill me in Nami."

"You failed to tell us that," Kakashi said over the top of his book.

She shrugged. "Minor detail."

Temari coughed. "We should get going. Suna's still a day away."

Ilki nodded, putting her kunai away and avoiding Kakashi's gaze. Her attention switched to Nibi, who was eying Gaara, who was eying them. She sighed. 'This is going to be a long mission.'

–

Suna was only several hours away, but the group of shinobi stopped anyways when night hit. Someone had had the bright idea of having civilians carry the water to the other village, instead of ninja. The reasoning was beyond Ilki's comprehension, but she filed it away as "funky ninja business".

Gaara had offered to keep watch, explaining briefly that he could not sleep due to the bijū inside him. Her sensei had agreed, albeit reluctantly, and the rest of their little group was left to catch a few hours of shuteye. As she lay in her sleeping bag, she found that sleep would not come to her. Too many thoughts ran around her mind, those of her missing friend and the upcoming Exams. 'If I'm lucky, very, very lucky, she'll show up at them,' she thought as she turned over, readjusting her pillow in the process.

Her eyes flicked to the figure sitting in front of their little group. With her new position, she had a better view of the brooding redhead. Gaara had never been her absolute favorite character in the series – Uchiha Itachi held that position. Yet, his character had been one of the most dynamic, and therefore one of the most interesting to watch throughout the series. Her thoughts drifted back to a list her and her Narutard friends had made years ago of things they would say and/or do to the more stoic characters in the show. One of the items listed under his name had been "engage in thoughtful conversation."

Between being bored because she could not sleep and being the random person she was, she decided to pursue that particular idea. Despite explicit instructions from Nibi to stay away from the other Jinchūriki, she crawled out from underneath her sleeping bag and quietly approached him. It did not escape her notice that the sand under her feet moved slightly before he seemed to recognize who she was.

"Anything interesting happening out there?" she asked as she plopped down on the ground next to him.

He flicked his eyes over to her for the briefest moment before refocusing on the horizon.

"I will take that as a 'no'." She sighed; this was going to be harder than she thought. "So, what do you do during the night? I haven't been able to sleep and I am so bored."

No response. Sighing, she leaned back on her elbows and stared at the sky. It was slightly cloudy, but the moon was uncovered. The moonlight reflected off the sand, making the desert seem brighter than it should be at night. She frowned, studying the dark gray puffs of water.

"That cloud looks like a one-legged turtle doing the Mexican hat dance."

The space where his eyebrows would have been raised as he looked at her curiously in response to her quite oddly phrased observation. She furrowed her own existent eyebrows, ignoring him as she studied the rather peculiar cloud mass and pondering where that thought came from. 'I don't even know what the Mexican hat dance looks like.'

"What? Don't you ever cloud watch?" She glanced at him, cocking her head slightly to the side. "There's this one guy back in Konoha, and all he ever does is cloud watch. One time, when I asked him why, he said it was calming. He also said it was troublesome, but he always says that about everything, so I decided to try it myself."

"What is a Me-x-i-can hat dance?" he finally asked in a low, quiet voice, stumbling over the foreign word.

"It's this dance these people do in another place," she said, proud of her thought-on-the-spot vague explanation. "I use to live there before I wandered into Konoha."

He said nothing back, but she prided herself in being able to get him to say something. She was about to continue her rambling when she heard a violent hissing in the back of her mind. Hours ago, she had de-summoned Nibi due to her incessant hissing. The cat, after a few minutes of yelling at her, had settled in for a nap – a nap it now presumably had woken up from. She did not seem too pleased to find her host chatting idly away with the Ichibi's Jinchūriki.

"Oh my kami, Nibi, shut up!" she hissed, only realizing she spoke aloud when the redhead glanced at her curiously. "Sorry, sometimes she's just so vocal…"

For a moment, he looked as if he was going to say something. But he did not, and she sighed in exasperation. The silence was not too uncomfortable, so she laid down and continued to watch the clouds. She was not sure when exactly she fell asleep, but she did remember him quietly mumble something to himself before she did so.

"Why are you not afraid of me?"

–

Ilki was woken up by the violent shaking of her shoulders, courtesy of the pink-haired banshee. With a low growl, she opened her eyes to find that everyone had already cleaned up the camp and was seemingly ready to go. The scent of food hung in the air, and her following thought made her frown.

"Wait…who didn't wake me up for breakfast?" she asked as she stood and brushed off the following sand.

"We tried, but you wouldn't wake up," Sakura replied with her hands on her hips. "Now we need to go."

"But…breakfast…" Seeing that she received no sympathy from the other ninja, she crossed her arms and pouted. "Meanies."

"Ilki, was something wrong with your sleeping bag?" Chōji asked. "You seemed fine before."

"Insert a lame excuse that Kaka-sensei uses here," she deadpanned.

"Oi…" Kakashi gave her a lazy look. "Those are mine."

"We really should get going," Temari said, interrupting the team's little conversation.

"Right." Ilki spun around in a circle, pointing in a random direction. "Onwards!"

–

Very rarely did Mirani leave the confines of her block. Her apartment was on the outskirts of Getsu's main district, and the training grounds she used were across the street. So when Sasori told her to meet him at a building on the other side of town, she was utterly lost in the winding streets.

The puppet master was known for his lack of patience. It was with that thought in mind that she frantically, albeit it did not seem so, took to the rooftops and attempted to find the street she was looking for. Exactly one minute and thirty-seven seconds before the appointed time, she found a run-down shop matching his earlier description. After the briefest hesitation, when she wondered if the decrepit place was truly the meeting place, she pushed the door open. The shopkeeper looked up at the tinkling bell that announced her presence, and, taking in her shinobi gear, pointed to the back room.

She was surprised to see others in the small room. One of the council members, Ajibama Iwao, was there, looking disgusted at the place they were meeting in. Deidera was also there with an expressionless Hideaki at his side. Her eyes lingered on him for a moment; she had not seen him in so long. The boy was a bit taller and more muscular than she remembered. Yet his blank look surprised her the most – Deidera seemed to have gotten through to him.

Next to the pair was an unfamiliar male, about her age, with light brown hair and coal black eyes. He looked at her with indifference, as if he could care less about her presence. To his right stood the hunchbacked puppet Sasori typically used, with its beady little eyes glaring at her. She saw the briefest flick of movement, but was unable to respond quick enough to dodge the tail that slapped her across the face. A thin cut appeared on her cheek, and a small bead of blood made its path along her pale skin.

"You're late," he snapped as he retracted his tail.

She remained silent and expressionless, even though the smallest flicker of hope bubbled up in her as she spotted the quickest flash of emotion in Hideaki's eyes. 'So Deidera has yet to fully break him,' she thought. 'One of these days, then, we might have a chance.' Her attention returned to Sasori before he could inflict further damage on the grounds of her not paying attention.

"This is Shigemitsu Kenta, the shopkeeper's son and one of the most promising genin we've found in Getsu," Sasori said. "He will be the third member of your squad for the upcoming Chūnin Exams in Suna."

Her eyebrows furrowed the tiniest bit at that piece of news, both at the implication and the facts stated in it. Suna was not supposed to hold the exams until after the time skip, leading her to believe she had missed something important going on with the current ninja alliance. If she was lucky, she would be able to find out on the way to the Exams. However, that was her other predicament; her last experience with them had been less than fun, to say the least.

Going with two people she had either never worked with or had not worked with in a long time was one of the worst ideas she had ever heard – not to mention that the Akatsuki were letting her out of the village, giving her the opportunity to possibly plan an escape. Even if she could not escape, being at Suna where she would more than likely run into old friends from Konoha provided a way to inform them of what was going on.

"Deidera will be assuming the position of the team's jōnin, and will be accompanying you to Suna," the puppet master continued, effectively destroying all of her hopes and plans.

"If either of you," Deidera said, glancing between Hideaki and her, "still have the willpower to attempt to betray us, you will find yourselves disposed of. Is that understood, un?"

'So, Konoha is going to think I've officially gone off the deep end,' she thought as she gave the tiniest of nods. 'Especially if Ilki's there. Good lord, here I thought this would be a chance to get away…someone up there must really hate me.'

"We will use this time to gather information that Ame would like us to retrieve, while making an entrance on the shinobi world. We were poorly represented in the last Chūnin Exams, and that was the first one we have been in for years." Iwao dusted nonexistent dust of his immaculate robes. "So, in addition to proving our newfound strength, you will be looking for any news about the Jinchūriki of the tailed beasts."

"We will be leaving in two days, as it takes a week and a half to get there," Deidera said with a slightly crazy grin. "Be prepared, brats."

–

"Wow, look at all the other teams here!" Ilki leaned over the railing of the small balcony attached to the team's room in a ryokan. "Iwa, Kiri, Taki, Kusa, and…what the crap is Oto doing here?"

She heard rustling behind her in the room before Sakura's voice said, "Only Konoha and Suna have a problem with them, and could not get enough support from the other shinobi villages to get them kicked out of the Exams." She appeared at her side, leaning over the railing with her. "And, get this, in the past two weeks leading up to the Exam, Oto rallied enough support that we Konoha and Suna nin aren't allowed to talk to them unless it's Exam business, or they'll claim harassment."

"How the heck did they pull that off?" she asked, her hands tightening around the railing.

"No one knows. Shishō was beyond angry when she heard though. She's starting to think that the other villages are out to get us." Sakura bit her lip. "I probably shouldn't be talking about this."

"I guess that means we can't ask them about Sasuke." At her words, the pinkette visibly saddened, so she continued, "But that doesn't mean we can't beat the crap out of them during the Exams."

"True." Her teammate smiled, but then seemed to spot something in the distance. "Hey, look! Is that who I think it is?"

Ilki practically fell off the balcony as she spotted the newest arrivals. In a few brief seconds, she had jumped off their second story room, landing with a semi-graceful roll. Using her momentum, she sprung up and ran towards the leisurely walking team.

"Mirani!" she cried as she tackled her with a flying glomp.

"…off."

She frowned as she got up, noting that her best friend had absolutely no positive reaction to her presence. 'Strange,' she thought. 'She doesn't look like she's feeling…anything.' Her gaze briefly flicked to the others; 'Hideaki looks the same. What the heck?'

"What's wrong with you?" she asked, her attention returning to her friend. "Don't give me a blank look. I'm your friend, remember?"

The blond-haired man in the back, presumably the sensei, coughed slightly. It seemed to have a hidden meaning, as the quickest flash of pain crossed Mirani's eyes. She took a deep breath and resumed her blank expression before speaking in the coldest tone the Jinchūriki had ever heard her use.

"I'm not your friend, not anymore. I thought I made that clear when I switched my allegiance to Getsu."

Ilki winced slightly; she still remembered the day only a few months after Mirani had left when a messenger hawk had come in from Getsu. The missive it carried had been a formal note addressed to the Hokage, where she requested the transfer of her ninja status. Her infuriatingly infallible logic left no room for discussion (that she was originally a citizen there, that the council had been the ones to allow her to stay in Konoha and therefore could revoke that privilege, and that as a genin she knew no village secrets; she was not really a threat if she was transferred), and Tsunade had informed her the next day. The real reason was beyond her, but she was beginning to think that it was also the reason her friend was acting so strangely – there was simply no other explanation for her behavior, in Ilki's eyes.

"We're not friends my a–"

Her friend snorted. "Think what you will, but…" She leaned forward, lowering her voice to a whisper. "Whatever you do, do not use the Nibi anywhere near my team."

"W-What?" She blinked, giving her the weirdest look as she pulled away. 'That made no sense! Unless she's trying to weaken me…?'

"Let's go, un," the jōnin said, sending a nasty glare in Mirani's direction.

As they left, Sakura – who had taken the more conventional way down from the room: the stairs – walked over to her with a concerned look on her face.

"What just happened?"

"I'm not sure…"

There was something about the way that the jōnin spoke that made her feel like she should know who he was, as if she was missing a big piece of information in the great mystery of her friend. 'What the heck is going on around here?'

–

The risk Mirani had taken had failed; she knew it the moment confusion crossed Ilki's eyes. She had hoped her "ex"-fried would recognize Deidera as one of the Akatsuki. He had not done much to disguise himself, counting on the fact that the Suna nin would not recognize him and any nin from his old village would be too young to know who he was. With a high-level genjutsu on his extra mouths, he had lost his most distinguishable trait. Even his trademark girly ponytail had been let loose after he gained green eyes through contacts and lost the Akatsuki cloak. He looked like any other normal, unimportant person.

'But the "un"!' she thought in exasperation. 'How did she not catch that?' It was possible that Ilki's memory had deteriorated slightly, as hers had, too. Even she was losing her memory when it came to the less important, not very well developed or drawn out information. 'But it's Deidera! How can she not remember the guy who killed Gaara?' Her angry ranting was interrupted when, as they walked into their provided room in the ryokan, said blond yanked her own ponytail sharply.

"What did you say to her, un?" Deidera snapped as he shut the door.

"Nothing you would care about," she hissed as she graced him with a glare. "I told her if we met on the battlefield I'd kill her."

"How should I believe you?" he asked, tightening his grip. "You could have told her some sort of code, un."

"Did she look like she wanted to kill you? No? Then that's how you know."

He leered at her. "If anything happens, it's your fault, un."

"Nothing will," she said, sadly believing her own words.

"The Exams start tomorrow," Hideaki said in an uncaring tone, though something in his eyes told her he was angry. "We should get ready."

"They'll probably be like last time," she muttered as she rubbed the back of her head. "We'll be fine."

–

"I heard an interesting rumor this morning," Kenta said as he walked into their room in the ryokan.

Mirani glanced up, resisting the urge to glare at her newest teammate. He had been the only one allowed to wander freely about Suna by Deidera because he apparently was no sort of threat to "the plan" that they were supposed to follow.

"Did you get what we asked instead of gossiping like an old woman?" Hideaki snapped, looking up from the kunai he was sharpening.

"Yeah, yeah." Kenta's eyes narrowed as he set the bags down, full to the brim with food and medical supplies. "I still think you guys are overreacting to the whole 'survival exercise' you're convinced we'll have for the second exam."

"I'm sure you wouldn't be saying the same thing if you were the one dying in the desert." She crossed her arms. "Now, what did you hear in the village?"

"No, no, you didn't want to hear my 'gossip'," he said with a smirk.

A kunai grazed his cheek with a speed he was not expecting, leaving a cut similar to the one Mirani had before they had set out to Suna. He glared at her outstretched hand as he reached back and pulled the weapon from the wall.

"The next one will be poisoned." The corners of her mouth twitched in a smile when he reflexively dropped the kunai, completely unaware of her typical incompetence when it came to poisons. "You have five seconds."

"There were some ninja, chūnin level it looked like, talking about how the first exam had gotten pushed up from two in the afternoon to eleven in the morning."

She frowned and glanced at the clock, noting that it was ten thirty in the morning. "Are you sure?"

"Would I lie to you?"

"I'm not sure, yet," she replied.

"You think it's part of the first exam?" Hideaki asked, standing and turning to her.

It was the first time he had directly spoken to her since she had first seen him in months, and it caught her off-guard for a moment. He had barely talked on the journey, and never to her, although he occasionally added a snarky remark in the few conversations the group had had. That hurt her, making her feel as if Deidera had gotten through to him, more than what was repairable. 'Maybe he still has a chance, like I thought before.'

"Well, last year the first exam was a test on information gathering skills. This year, maybe they're counting on us mingling in a foreign village and seeing how well we pay attention to our surroundings."

"Possibly." He glanced at Kenta. "Well, what do you think?"

"We should probably check it out," he said. "It can't hurt, and Kosaku-sensei would be mad if we failed this early."

She snorted at his respectful tone for Deidera's codename. "Just be prepared. It could also be a trap."

–

The meeting area for the first exam was a training ground near Suna's ninja academy, not too far from the several ryokans that the teams had been allowed to stay at. By quarter of eleven, several teams were already waiting there, including the temporary team Ilki had joined. Sakura, Chōji, and she were waiting by themselves, watching the other teams as they trickled in.

"Are we like, the only team from Konoha?" she asked as she eyed the separated teams, each eying the competition up.

Sakura pursed her lips. "I think so. Team Gai was gonna wait one more year to make sure Lee's injuries were fully healed, and team eight had a long mission that wouldn't allow them to make the Exams. With Shikamaru already a chūnin, that left Ino and us."

"Of course, and we can't have an exam where none of the genin that took part in it last year came to represent Konoha." Ilki rolled her eyes. "Great, no pressure."

"This year is smaller than last year, though," Chōji said in-between bites of his chips.

"Maybe they're afraid of another invasion that could kill them." The Jinchūriki blinked at the two glares she received. "Sorry, bad joke."

A few more teams arrived before eleven o'clock, including the Sand Siblings and whatever team Mirani had joined. Ilki's eyes narrowed at the sight of her old teammates, her confusion once again taking over her thoughts. 'This is not the time to get confused,' she thought in irritation.

Barely seconds after eleven, several Suna shinobi shunshin-ed into the training ground. A man dressed in the typical brown garments of Suna's ninja, along with cloth covering his head, stepped forward and appraised the teams that had arrived.

"Only twenty teams?" He frowned. "This year's crop must not be as strong as we thought."

"What's going on?" a Taki nin asked.

"My name is Isago, and I am the proctor of the first exam," the man said. "Which you have all just passed."

"Not another surprise 'YOU PASS!' like last time," Ilki groaned. "That's so boring."

"What do you mean we passed?" An Iwa nin stepped forward. "Are you mocking us? We didn't do anything."

Isago sighed. "Most of you heard about the upping of the first exam, which you would have had to been paying attention to your surroundings in the village to have heard about. On a mission, you must always be prepared for a change in schedule – things don't always go as planned. Those that aren't here believed that they would have no reason to be alert and even awake at this time, because they felt secure in that nothing would change. Imagine if they had been on an important mission, where they were supposed to catch someone or something at a particular time. Now if that time had suddenly changed, they would have failed, whereas you all would have been able to react accordingly."

"So what, we all get to move on to the second exam now? When does that start?" another random ninja asked.

One of the other Suna nin that had appeared, a bald one, stepped forward. "I am Satetsu, and I am the proctor for the second exam. Which starts now."

The genin tensed, as if waiting for an attack to come out of nowhere. Satetsu chuckled, a strange sound coming from the burly looking man.

"Well, in a few minutes actually. First, I have to explain the rules." He unfurled a map and began pointing at it. "We are here, and here is Okamura, your target destination. Each team is to travel to that village, which is about two days travel through the desert. Once there, you will have to find the man named Naka Ki, where one of your teammates will receive a message that they can choose whether or not to share with the rest of their team. Then you will travel back to Suna."

"What's the catch?" a Kusa nin questioned, his voice betraying his suspicion.

"Only the first four teams to return to Suna will advance to the second round," he answered. "This way we will have no need for a preliminary round before the third exam. What this means is that, in order to secure your place in the final round, you may need to severely injure or kill other teams. Before you leave, you will all need to sign waivers. You can leave whenever you want – if you need to gather supplies, you should before you head to the desert. Just remember that only the first four teams will pass this round."

"This is going to be fun," Ilki murmured, cracking her knuckles.

"Please sign these waivers, and then you are dismissed."

–

"Aren't you glad you bought supplies?" Mirani asked Kenta as the team headed for the front gates of Suna. "Otherwise, we'd be wasting time right now."

The shopkeeper's boy was silent, instead opting for a glare at her. She smirked slightly, but the expression disappeared when she spotted Deidera casually leaning against the gates. For a brief moment, she glared, but then reigned in her emotions enough to put back on her expressionless façade.

"Just have to make sure you don't do anything stupid, un," he said with a false smile. Handing Hideaki a small clay spider, he continued, "Keep that with you – I'll know if you get rid of it. Sasori-danna said you might attempt to pull something off, so I'm taking precautions."

"You're holding us up," she replied, eying the spider that had crawled in Hideaki's backpack. "Can we go now?"

Deidera nodded slightly and moved, letting them pass into the desert.

–

"Okamura shouldn't be too far away from our current position, according to this map."

Ilki took the map from Sakura and stared at it. "How can you read this thing?"

"Think we'll make it there and back in time?" Chōji asked, ignoring the Jinchūriki's stupidity.

"Hopefully," the pinkette replied. "We haven't seen any other teams, though. I know there were only nineteen others, but still, you'd think we woulda already seen someone."

"We didn't travel the path of oases, as per your instructions," Ilki muttered. "That's probably why."

"How do you think we can find this Naka Ki guy?" Their male teammate paused in his chip consumption to ask the question, a sign of how important he thought it was.

"We could ask around." She recoiled under the withering glare Sakura gave her. "What?"

"That's not obvious at all," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Well what do you suggest, oh-mighty-brainy-one?"

"There's something odd with the name, for starters."

Chōji nodded in agreement. "Naka is a direction, and Ki is a noun."

"'Central Tree'. So you think we might be looking for someone or something under a tree that's in the center of town?" The pinkette blinked. "That...actually makes a lot of sense."

"Hey, I can see Okamura!" Ilki broke into a grin. "Let's do this!"

The villagers gave them strange looks as they bounded through the streets. No one tried to stop them, however, as they searched for the center of the village. After a few minutes, they came across a small oasis with a large tree on the small patch of grass circling it. Under the tree sat a man in a meditative position, seemingly completely at peace.

"That must be him! Let's go!" Ilki moved forward, but Sakura suddenly yanked her back onto the street. "What now?"

The pinkette shushed her and whispered, "Look, there's other teams there."

"So?"

"They're about to fight. I know I don't want to get involved."

She glanced around the corner, only to find a Kusa team eying up the team from Getsu. Her interest piqued, she shifted into a more comfortable position to watch. The way Mirani, Hideaki, and the stranger held their ground so calmly led her to believe that they had been taught well. 'Whatever happened didn't stop her from training, it seems,' she thought with a small frown. 'Strange.'

One of the Kusa nin said something she could not quite make out, but she did hear the stranger on the Getsu team complain about having to waste energy on the fight. A cool voice, Hideaki's she presumed, told him to watch for pedestrians. She saw one of the Kusa nin throw a few shuriken, but then they suddenly fell over unconscious and twitching. Confused, she did not recognize the genjutsu until the stranger released his hands.

"Good grief…" she muttered. "What the heck is Getsu teaching these guys?"

"I know," Chōji said from her side in-between bites. "That has to be an advanced level jutsu for a genin."

An argument suddenly broke out among the three, a quiet one she strained to hear.

"No!" Mirani and Hideaki finally snapped, loud enough for her to hear over the din of the street. The two exchanged a brief glance before she continued, "No, they remain unharmed by us. They…they are a group I want to fight in the final round."

Ilki cursed inwardly; 'We were spotted. Still, refusing to attack us? Considering Mirani supposedly hates my guts, this just doesn't add up.' Pondering this thought, she watched the stranger approach the man, scowl, and then return to his team. After a few moments, they were gone.

"I think it's safe to go now," she said, turning back to her own teammates.

They waited a few more minutes before they walked into the open, carefully sidestepping the nin on the ground. As they approached the tree, the man underneath it looked up and smiled at them. He considered them for a moment, as if checking to make sure they were the people he was supposed to talk to, before motioning for them to come closer.

"I can only give one of you the message you are to carry back to Sunagakure," he said. "It is up to you three to choose who will be the messenger."

"I vote we do rock-paper-scissor-shoe to solve this problem," Ilki told her teammates solemnly as she turned to look at them. "It's the only fair way to decide this."

Her teammates regarded her for a minute, as if questioning her sanity, before nodding in agreement. At the end of the rounds, Chōji lost the game, and he went forward. Whatever the man said seemed to sadden him, but he returned to the group nevertheless.

"We should hurry back," he murmured as he stared dejectedly at his bag of chips.

"Um…are you okay?" she asked as she glanced at Sakura; he not eating food was a sure sign of something wrong.

"Yeah, I'm fine. But if we don't hurry, we won't make it back in time."

–

"Congratulations, you are the second team to arrive back." Satetsu half-smiled at the three genin in front of him. "Now, which one of you was the messenger?"

Kenta stepped forward, but not without glaring at his other teammates. "I am."

"And your message?"

"I fail the round, while my teammates pass."

Mirani blinked once, twice, before glancing at an equally stunned Hideaki. 'He…fails?' she thought in wonder. 'This makes no sense. The message…it was that he fails?' She turned her attention back to the proctor, who was nodding at Kenta.

"Correct. The point of this round was to test your trustworthiness and loyalty. Sometimes, missions will have a double meaning for one of their members. Often, you have a choice whether or not to share that information with the rest of your team, but if you do, you jeopardize the mission. You had the choice whether to keep that information to yourself and fulfill the side mission, or tell your teammates and fail as a group. By keeping the information to yourself, you sacrificed yourself for the good of the rest of the team and the mission."

"But I still fail." The shopkeeper's son seemed to be resisting the urge to sulk.

"Yet you still have the markings of a good chūnin in making," Satetsu said. "You learned the important lesson in sacrifice. Better luck next year." He turned to her and Hideaki. "As for you two, you pass to the next round. The next round is tournament style, and it will occur in a month's time. You have the month to train to fight your opponents, which will be announced the day of the final exam. Dismissed."

As soon as they were outside of the building they had been supposed to report to, Kenta whirled on them. "You better be so glad that you two are the village's prodigies, or I would have failed both of you."

She watched him storm off dispassionately, instead focused on her own thoughts. 'We have a month where we're supposed to train, while avoiding the other teams and an inquisition, and _then_ we have to make sure these people don't notice that we know techniques that the average genin shouldn't know. Wonderful.'

–

"I heard an interesting rumor today."

Mirani glanced up from the small mirror she was using to put her hair back, finding Hideaki leaning against the doorframe of the room. The two were supposed to be heading to the final exam in a few minutes, it finally being time for the tournament.

"Don't tell me the exam got moved up again, and we missed it," she deadpanned.

"No, actually." He shook his head slightly, the ghost of a smile on his face. "Rumor has it that one of the genin this year is already a chūnin."

"Well that's not fair. Who?"

"Sabaku no Gaara. They say it was because he did not purposely fail his team or attempt to kill them in frustration. The council of Suna convinced the other kages that it was such a monumental change in his personality that he should be promoted."

"…I can see that." She stood and stretched. "You ready to go?"

He nodded, and the two left the ryokan. The arena for the tournament was not far away, and there was no way they could miss it; the steady stream of people entering it was like a giant blinking arrow. It was bigger than the one in Konoha, able to hold more civilians and other important people who found young teens and pre-teens fighting each other entertaining. 'Sometimes I question the sanity of these people,' she thought as she headed to the participants' box, 'but then I remember that I'm a trained killer.'

The other three teams that had made it in were already there: Temari and Kankurō of Suna; Ilki and Sakura of Konoha; and a male and female from Taki. It did not take a genius to figure out why each team had separated into different corners of the box and seemed to be eying up the competition. The two Getsu nin headed to the only remaining corner left.

'Let's see…I know everyone except the two from Taki,' Mirani thought as she leaned against the wall. 'So I'll have to watch out for them, especially if I have to fight them.' Her gaze flicked to Hideaki, who was also turning his calculating gaze to each of the possible competition. 'If I'm lucky, I won't have to fight him or Ilki…I don't think I could handle either of them without cracking.' The month she had spent with her teammate had reaffirmed her belief that he had not completely succumbed to being a brainwashed killer, as the Akatsuki had attempted to do. It seemed he had more spirit than she originally gave him credit for, something she was thankful for. 'We've even graduated to cracking really pathetic jokes with each other!'

It was not long until the standing-in Kazekage, The Sand Siblings' sensei, Baki, announced the start of the final round. She was not sure exactly why he had not just accepted the position of the Godaime Kazekage, but she had a feeling it had something to do with waiting for Gaara to be high enough in the ninja world to become it officially. 'I don't think Gaara was the Rokudaime, so that would make sense,' she thought as she listened to the opening speech. Up in the "Kage box" was also Tsunade, she noticed, along with the leader of Takigakure and the ruling council of Getsugakure. Her eyes narrowed in irritation. 'Wonderful. Tsunade's gonna believe me and Hideaki are officially enemies of Konoha, _and_ I have the stupid council breathing down my neck.' Even Deidera was somewhere in the audience, watching them with calculating eyes.

The contestants were called down to the arena to learn whom they would be fighting. Otokaze, the proctor, produced a piece of paper with a chart. She immediately frowned; her first fight was with Sakura. If she won that fight, she would have to fight the winner of the fight that consisted of Ilki and the male Taki nin, Yoichi. 'Someone up there must really hate me,' she decided as she headed back up to the contestants' box. 'At least my fight isn't first.'

"Do you know anything about Kankurō?" Hideaki asked as the first two contestants were called down: Temari and the female Taki nin, Shiroko.

"He works with puppets," she replied as she leaned against the railing. "That's what I heard from the last Exam, at least."

Nodding, he too turned his attention to the fight that had just started. The Taki girl seemed to work with ice, while Temari used her fans and wind. It was an interesting fight, one that consisted of flying ice-shrapnel and whipping winds. Despite the surprising fervor and strength of the little Shiroko, Temari eventually had her trapped in a painful tornado until she passed out from the dizziness. She was declared the winner, and the matches moved on.

"Hideaki…good luck," she said as her teammate and Kankurō were called down.

He nodded and jumped down, meeting the puppeteer on the arena floor. The proctor started the match, but neither boy moved. After a few moments, the crowd began to get restless. It seemed most in the crowd did not understand the ability to take a tactical approach to the fight.

Hideaki was suddenly yanked forward and into a waiting kunai, only to turn into one of the few rocks in the arena. The real boy appeared behind Kankurō, and, with a few hand seals, performed one of the Taiyoukei Hakkei, the Taiyou fireball. It hit the ground as the other jumped away. When the smoke cleared, the puppeteer had his main puppet, Karasu, out.

And so it went for a while; it seemed neither could obtain the upper hand. Or, so it seemed to the average watcher. Knowing that Hideaki had been personally trained by Deidera made Mirani guess that the holes being made in the ground were not just repercussions from the attacks. It looked as if her teammate had some sort of affinity with tsuchi, possibly his second affinity next to the hoshiboshi chakra.

When Kankurō had been successfully lured back to his original position from the start of the fight, a small smirk crossed Hideaki's features. He quickly performed the Taiyoukei Hakkei for Dosei, and, when protected by its rings, formed a familiar sign. The arena exploded, or seemed to from the amount of small bombs that had been placed. Once the smoke cleared, she could see a wounded Kankurō kneeling on the ground, coughing. Holding a kunai to the back of his next, Hideaki stood above him.

"Winner, Tsukino Hideaki," the proctor announced after a moment, when it appeared the puppeteer could not continue and Hideaki's kunai had made a thin line of red.

The medics came onto the field as Hideaki returned to the box. He sighed when he reached her and patted his weapon pouch.

"I'm almost out of bombs now. Pity."

She snorted. "Shoulda brought more. I hope you have more tricks up your sleeve."

"You'll find out." He glanced over the railing. "Looks like it's your turn."

It was a fact she was not completely pleased with. She had come to the final round expecting to fight, but she had been praying that she would not have to fight her old friends and teammates. Yet, as she stood on the arena floor with Sakura in front of her, she still found herself itching to fight the pinkette. 'The Akatuski are either rubbing off on me, or my old hatred for Sakura's character is resurfacing. Not good.'

"I think you'll find I'm not the same pushover I used to be," Sakura said as the proctor started the match. "And I accomplished it without being a complete bi-"

"Do you really wanna play the talking game, pinky?" she snapped, not wanting to hear about how mean she had been to her friend. "I don't advise it."

"Don't tell me what to do," the pinkette replied, glaring. "Traitor. Ilki told me all about what you've become."

Her words made her grind her teeth. In the stands, she spotted a smug-looking Deidera and Getsu council. 'He's testing me – they all are,' she realized. 'Any weakness I show against the Konoha nin will be used against me. I really need to sell my betrayal, or who knows what they will do to me.' For a brief moment, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Are you gonna stand there all day talking, or are we gonna fight?"

Sakura pulled black gloves on with a snap and charged at her. 'Even if I didn't know about her character, she's too obvious about her abilities. The gloves and the way she just put them on signify taijutsu, with the most strength in her arms, and the smoothness of her hands before she covered them means she spends a lot of time using healing chakra. What is with ninja and practically announcing their abilities?'

Quickly sidestepping the chakra filled punch, she then realized the pinkette had not worked too much on her speed. It seemed she was more used to directly blocking and defending herself, not dodging. Mirani never learned that, only learning for her intense training sessions with Sasori to dodge or so help her, she would be in a poison-induced coma for a day.

As she dodged punches and kicks, she fingered a few of her weapons in her pouch. Some had been pre-poisoned, while she also kept a vial of poison to recoat her weapons later. 'I wonder how good she's gotten at poisons, considering the point the series is in,' she thought as she decided on several shuriken, senbon, and kunai. The variety, she hoped, would make sure that at least one of the poisoned senbon would hit her as she avoided the other, more dangerous weapons.

Her opponent tensed as she pulled out her assortment of weapons, enough to fill both her hands. Mirani bounced back, giving herself enough distance from the chakra punch that Sakura was preparing. Swiftly, she threw the weapons and watched as the pinkette weaved through the sharper weapons. For a moment, she thought none of her senbon had hit her, until she saw the thin cut on the girl's arm. 'Perfect, just gotta keep her busy for about another minute while the poison mixes through her system.'

The distraction of her success was enough for Sakura to give her a decent punch to the stomach, one that sent her flying into the wall of the arena. Her ears rung and she saw stars for several seconds as she picked herself up. The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth, and she winced. Even if she had only been training for a year, the pinkette sure packed a punch. 'Still pales in comparison to the pain Sasori has caused me.'

Sakura suddenly froze, an expression of pain crossing her face. With a shaky hand, she grabbed what seemed to be the burning cut Mirani's senbon had made. Within seconds, she was on her knees, shaking with what she presumed to be pain. Raising her emerald eyes, the pinkette glared at her.

"What did you do to me?" she hissed, a mixture of pain and anger in her voice.

Mirani wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth. "Poison. A fast-acting neurotoxin that will eventually destroy enough of your nervous tissue to cause death. Unless, of course, you find an antidote…?"

The meanness of her voice surprised her; when had she become so venomous towards those she had once considered friends (albeit she was one of the more annoying ones)? A brief glare was shot in the direction of the Getsu council – it was their fault, she decided. Her eyes flicked over to Tsunade, who looked ready to kill her for harming her precious student. 'If I ever escape…I don't think Konoha will accept me back.'

She returned her attention to the battle, where she glanced at the proctor. He looked as if he was debating whether or not to stop the fight, as if he believed she was lying about the poison or that Sakura would pick herself up and continue fighting.

"I advise you to stop the fight now," she warned, knowing that the next move would either be to demean Sakura or kill her – she did not like her choices.

"No!" her opponent snapped, trying her hardest to stand. "I won't lose to you!"

She wanted to tell her she was sorry, that she did not mean for it to go this far, but one look from Deidera told her that if she did not finish up this match, she would be in for it later. 'And this…this will be the point of no return.' With a deep breath, she formed the signs for Ryuuseiu. A large chunk of rock detached from the ground and floated upwards. Sakura had never seen that jutsu before, and watched it with wide eyes as it floated over to her. Despite her best efforts, she could not move anymore.

"Stop the match!" Tsunade roared from the kage box.

The proctor jumped at the slug-princess's demand. "The match is called, with Tahigoto Mirani the winner. Stop the jutsu!"

The meteor made a large cracking sound before exploding into chunks of little pieces, peppering the ground and cutting Sakura. When it came to Ryuuseiu, the only way to stop it was to simply make the ending of the jutsu less harmful than originally intended – or so she had learned. Nevertheless, it still hurt; when Sakura cried out in pain, Tsunade leapt down from the kage box. Her landing made a large crater before she rushed over to her student, the medics following at her heels. As the medics loaded the girl into the stretcher, the Hokage spun around and advanced on Mirani. Grabbing her by the collar, she picked her off the ground and shook her slightly.

"I swear, if you did any irreversible damage to her…"

"Tsunade-hime. She knew the risks stepping into this ring. It's her teacher's fault for not teaching her properly."

As soon as the words left her mouth, she bit her tongue. She did not know from where they came, only that she had spoken them and Deidera was beaming at her with a sadistic grin. 'They…my god, have they really changed me?' she wondered as Tsunade resisted the urge to punch the living daylights out of her.

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune, the assistant, cried as she came into the arena.

The Hokage growled and dropped her. "Get me my sake, and help the medics!"

Mirani caught her breath and rubbed her neck before returning to the box. Ilki was glowering at her from her corner, and she quickly turned away from the Jinchūriki. The last thing she wanted was to feel more guilt because of the look she was receiving. Her gaze switched to Hideaki, who was looking at her with his own whirlwind of emotions: admiration, anger, surprise, and somewhere in there, understanding. 'He's so lucky he doesn't have to face any of them,' she thought in irritation as she absentmindedly rubbed her new bruise.

–

Honestly, Ilki felt bad for Sakura, despite her being the annoying banshee queen. As soon as her match was over, in which she won against the Taki nin Mamoru, she had gone to the hospital with Tsunade. The proctor had called an intermission before the next round of fights, giving her enough time to leave the stadium.

Shizune informed them upon their arrival that an antidote had been found, as it seemed whatever poison Mirani had used was not very complex. They were allowed to see her, but Tsunade had to leave soon after to return to the fights. She was the second fight; therefore, she had time to stay a bit longer.

"You fight her next, don't you?" Sakura asked as she fiddled with the bed sheets.

"Yes." She grimaced. "I don't want to."

"Be careful…I feel like she was holding back."

Ilki snorted, unsurprised. "We'll see."

"I…" the pinkette began, but paused. "I'm mad at the outcome of the fight, but I noticed something. I don't think she's fully there…like something happened to her. I don't think she wanted to fight the way she did."

"She was emotionless. How do you figure all that?"

"Her eyes. Pain, not the physical kind but like the memory kind, it would cross her face. And she tried to stop the match before she attacked me. It's like…well, almost like she was trying to protect me from getting too hurt. After Sasuke left…and he didn't want anything to do with us…well, I think if Mirani was going to desert us, she wouldn't look like that."

Sakura's words resonated through Ilki's mind as she walked back to the arena. 'If that's true, maybe she was trying to legitimately warn me about using the Nibi,' she thought, stroking her chin as if she had a beard. 'Or it could be an intricate plot to weaken me. She always was the devious one who thought up the strangest, most complicated, and most successful plans.'

As she approached the stadium, she began to hear the murmur of the crowd. The arena had suffered severe damage from the last fight, not counting the pocket marks that had been created from the match between Hideaki and Kankurō. Now there were slash marks all over the walls, more craters, and several other indistinguishable marks. She heard the murmurs in the crowd of how complicated and intricate the fight had been. One glance at the box told her that Hideaki had won, and that Temari was more than likely on her way to the hospital. Again, she wondered what her old teammates had been taught in Getsu.

"Good, you're here," the proctor said as he noticed her. "We were going to have to cancel your match, with you forfeiting."

"Well, we don't have to worry about that now, do we?" she asked as she crossed her arms.

"Next match, Tahigoto Mirani versus Samiu Ilki. Will both contestants meet me on the arena floor?"

Her expressionless friend walked down, seeming to avoid looking at her at all costs. She frowned; the poor proctor did not deserve to be glared at in the way the girl was doing so.

"Oi, I'm over here," she said.

Mirani froze, but after a moment turned to her. "I really don't want to look at you."

She set her jaw. "…you know, Sakura actually thought something was wrong, but you're never like this to me."

She remained silent, and Ilki found it impossible to read even the slightest bit of emotion of her. 'Well, looks like my complicated slash devious plan theory was correct. Sakura must have been seeing things.' The proctor glanced between them, but nevertheless started the match.

Neither moved at first, instead simply eying each other up. 'If I'm basing her abilities off of what I've seen from the other Getsu guys, then she's gonna be up there. But I have the Nibi…do I really want to follow her advice though? I mean, I'm not the type to just let go of a life-long friend so easily, but this is just so out of character for her. Maybe…maybe if I use the Nibi, I can beat some sense into her and get her to tell me what the heck happened to her.'

Her thoughts were interrupted as she caught the slightest movement Mirani made to reach her weapon pouch. Quickly, she grabbed her own weapons and intercepted the multiple weapons flying towards her. 'Poison won't work on me, since the Nibi's chakra will negate it quickly, so she's just testing my reaction time, then,' she thought as she watched the weapons drop to the ground. 'She would know that, unless she's got a kick-butt poison. But looking at what she used on Sakura, I won't have to worry about poison.'

Once again, her friend moved, but this time it was with startling speed and an outstretched fist. Dodging, she aimed her own punch but felt it hit nothing but air. Mirani had gained speed, she noted as she spun around to dodge another attack. Yet she too was fluent with taijutsu, better than she was at ninjutsu. Her friend seemed to remember that particular fact and stepped back. Quickly flying through several signs, she muttered something under her breath. Just as quickly, she started glowing a soft bluish silver color.

The next hit Mirani landed sent Ilki flying backwards in a similar fashion that she had done in her fight with Sakura. 'So that jutsu enhances her taijutsu,' she thought as she watched the glow disappear. 'And it looks like it's only useable for one attack.' Pondering her own ninjutsu abilities, she realized that she would need the Nibi to do anything fire-related. Ignoring her friend's previous warning, she performed the Kuchiyose no Jutsu and summoned the cat into the arena.

"Now this is going to get interesting," Nibi said as she stretched.

–

Mirani could not comprehend the stupidity of her friend. She had just summoned the Nibi no Bakeneko in front of one of the Akatsuki members. As if that was not enough, said Akatsuki member would probably kill her later for not mentioning the fact that she knew another Jinchūriki in Konoha. Mentally cursing her life and Ilki, she shifted her position and attempted to think of an attack that would neutralize the Nibi for just a bit. Even she knew she would not last long against a bijū, especially one that had substantially grown since the last time she saw her. What had once been the size of a normal house cat had grown into the size of a large horse.

"Kitten, you sure you want me to go all out on her?" Nibi asked as she eyed Mirani. "Isn't she your friend?"

"According to her, not anymore. So yeah, let's have fun."

For the next few minutes, she dodged for her life from the cat's massive paws and the occasional weapon thrown by Ilki. 'I have to find a way to just hinder the cat,' she thought as she mentally went through her arsenal of jutsu. Considering it was summer and the northern constellations had been visible at night, she had the ability to use any of the jutsu based on them. 'If I remember correctly, there was one that can be used as a guardian-like jutsu. Something with a centaur…but I'll need a distraction.'

An idea popped in her head, and in response, she acted upon it. She quickly did the signs for a Taiyoukei Hakkei, the Meiousei version. A large blue glob went flying towards the speedily approaching cat and ninja. Nibi breathed a giant fireball, melting the icy mixture in front of her so that it simply passed her on both sides. In return, Mirani then threw some shuriken and kunai in the direction the goo went, completely missing her attackers. Before Ilki could make a crack at her aim, however, she yanked on the wire strings she had pre-attached to that certain set of weapons. Jumping, she flew over the speeding animal and crossed her arms, tripping and catching the Nibi with the wires.

"Brat!" the cat yowled as it struggled to step out of the wires – it would seem not using a chakra coat over her fur would be her demise.

Going through more seals, she performed another, newer jutsu: Shashuza. A whirlwind of stars appeared next to her, which she aimed at Nibi. They took on the form of a centaur with a bow, a bow nocked in the direction of the struggling cat. It was a lot weaker than she had hoped, but she prayed that the strange creature and the surprise of the jutsu would at least hold the bijū for a few minutes.

She turned to Ilki, only to see her going through her own seals. A few Kage Bunshin appeared and prepared to attack her, but their hesitation made her suspicious. Her suspicions were proved to be real when she suddenly felt as if someone was strangling her; only then did the clones attack. 'Her shadow, her stupid Kage Ridatsu,' she realized as she began to see spots. 'It's the only way she could be strangling me without anything being there. Weakness…crap, what was its weakness?'

The spots began to get bigger, and her mind began to search more frantically. Finally, she remembered the light. As quick as she could with struggling hands, she formed the seals for Jun-Hoshi Bakuhatsu, a blinding jutsu. The bright stars appeared around her, weak just like her but still exploding with enough light to send her shadow away. She fell to the ground gasping as she tried to regain her vision. Before she could stand back up, the unaffected Kage Bunshin attacked her, slamming her into the ground. It felt as, in addition to new bruises, some of her old wounds had opened up. 'Dang it!'

Grabbing a kunai, she used her learned speed to cut through the Kage Bunshin and dispel them. She then advanced on Ilki, who was still rubbing her eyes, albeit she moved a bit more sluggishly than before. 'I'm gonna run out of chakra soon,' she thought in irritation as the Jinchūriki still jumped away. 'I prolly have enough for another jutsu or two, but then I'll be screwed if I make it into the final round.' Mentally cursing herself out, she formed a few more signs for another constellational jutsu, Akuira. The cawing of a bird resonated through the stadium as stars formed in a similar way to her Shashuza, though this time it took on the shape of an eagle.

Quickly, she diverted her chakra from her ears so that her hearing dimmed down to almost nothing. At the same time, the eagle opened its celestial beak and let loose a roaring caw that shook the stadium like thunder. The protective barrier jutsu that protected the observers visibly shook as the roar reached unnatural decibles. Nibi yowled before dispelling with a poof, the weaker summoned form not being able to handle the sound, while Ilki clutched her hidden, more sensitive cat ears.

Seeing a chance, she grabbed another kunai and lunged at her friend, ignoring the ringing her lowered hearing was still having. With the smallest hesitation, she plunged it into her friend's side, wincing at the sight of the red blood pouring onto her hands. The eagle stopped roaring then, and disappeared with a poof. Ilki, crying out in pain from her wound and her ringing ears, joined her friend on the ground on her knees. She was in enough pain from the beating her Kage Bunshin had given her while she was being strangled.

The Jinchūriki whimpered as she rubbed her sensitive ears; it seemed she could not properly hear anything going on around her. Blood was flowing freely from the wound on her side, despite her fast healing abilities. It seemed she had driven the kunai in deeper than she thought, with no resistance from the ribcage, as she had stabbed just below it. 'Look at us…we're best friends, probably former best friends, but we just tried to kill each other,' Mirani thought as she panted. Her limbs ached, blood was soaking her clothes, and she no longer could tell which bruises were old and which were newer. 'I really am turning into a monster, despite my denial.'

Neither moved for a few seconds, and the proctor stepped forward cautiously. "Are either of you able to continue the fight? Otherwise it will have to be considered a draw." Silence greeted him, and he sighed. "By default, this match is a draw. Because they cannot continue to fight, Tsukino Hideaki is declared the winner of the tournament."

–

"She cannot be discharged right now, Kosaku-san! She's suffering from severe fatigue and injuries!"

The nurse's words went unheeded, Mirani figured, as Deidera stormed into her hospital room with Kenta and Hideaki trailing behind him. She winced as she sat up, and then settled with glaring at her intruders.

"Come along, Mirani," Deidera snapped. "We have to head back to Getsu. The council is demanding our return."

She raised an eyebrow as she gestured to the various machines she was hooked up to. "Sure, lemme get right on that."

"Don't smart mouth me, un. Nurse, leave us, and find someone to get her ready to leave."

"But –"

"_Now_, un."

His glare made the nurse squeak and scurry out of the room. As soon as she left, he himself took the liberty of ripping out any IVs and wires attached to her. Before she could complain or hiss in pain, he picked her up and slung her over her shoulder.

"Let's go, un," he said to the others before jumping out of the window.

"Are you crazy?" she snapped as he took to the rooftops. "Or are you trying to kill me?"

"You're lucky to be alive, nevertheless granted the level of chūnin due to the council's petitioning." She could tell he smirked. "But we'll see how lucky you are when Sasori-danna finds out you held out on us about the Nibi's Jinchūriki."

–

"They left today," Sakura told Ilki when she walked into her hospital room.

Her soft voice was music to the Jinchūriki's ears; her soft voice was much better than her banshee voice when it came to the tender state of her ears. "Wow, she recovered fast."

"No, they didn't let her finish recovering. They literally took her from her bed and left."

"…that's crazy." Ilki frowned. "I think Tsunade-sama should look into Getsugakure. If that's how they've been treating her, it's no wonder she's changed."

"She just tried to kill you," the pinkette said incredulously, "and you still want to help her?"

"Point taken, but…yes, I do. Heck, if I'm a chūnin now, then I'll go investigate myself."

"Um…I don't think that's wise. But I'll ask shishō."

–

"So you saw fit to hold out on us?" Sasori's puppet's tail added yet another wound to the already battered Mirani. "You thought being loyal to an old friend would save her, did you? Well, then it seems you've failed."

"Watching the fight gave me a good amount of information, un," Deidera said to his partner. "We'll have to relay it to Leader-sama."

"I will relay it, while you deal out punishment to your own student for partaking in this secret," the puppet master replied.

"Of course, Sasori-danna." The blond turned to his student with a sadistic grin. "Come along, Hideaki, un."

Mirani wanted to curl up into a ball of misery, knowing that the damage done to her would soon be done to another person. She had not cried in months, yet she felt a tear trickle down her cheek. Hideaki gave her a small squeeze on one of her hands before getting up and following Deidera out – he knew better than to disobey, so that his punishment was not worsened. 'We have to get out of here,' she thought as she was left alone in the small room she had been dragged to upon arrival in Getsu. 'If we don't die first.'

* * *

_Glossary:_

Iwa, Kiri, Taki, Kusa – Stone, Mist, Waterfall, and Grass Villages, respectively.

Ryokan – Japanese hotel.

Shunshin-ed – A lazy term used instead of Shunshin no Jutsu, or Body Flicker Technique.

Shishō – teacher/master.

Tsuchi – Earth [as in the ground, not the planet].

_Mirani's Jutsu [in order of appearance]:_

Herakuresu: Hercules, based off the mythology of the constellation. This constellation is visible in the summer, hence why she was able to use it.

Shashuza: Sagittarius, the centaur with the bow. Also visible in the summer. [I'm not sure if I correctly translated this; some places said it was one word while others said it was "Ite Za". So correct me if you know better.]

Jun-Hoshi Bakuhatsu: Quasar Explosion. Quasars are really bright stars, according to the website I've been using; "Quasars, or quasi stellar objects, are named that way because they are point-like objects just like stars. However, they are nothing like stars. From analysis they are determined to be very distant, some are the most distant objects that we can see. But they are also very bright. Such intensity seen by Earth at such great distances indicates that they are very energetic."

Akuira: Aquila, a constellation. Like the others, it's a constellation seen in the summer. Mythological-wise, it is a servant of Zeus, who held the thunderbolts and performed errands.

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**_Encourage me with your reviews, please! :)_**


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